a mild act of anarchy

John Betjeman, who died in 1984 Image-John Garrett

Thanks to Tony Jones for the second in our occasional boating poetry series.

John Betjeman (1906-1984) became poet laureate in 1972. He was largely ignored or derided by the critics of his day, but was greatly admired by fellow poets WH Auden and Philip Larkin and hugely loved by the general public. Never one to take himself too seriously, he cultivated his image as a bumbling old duffer, and was affectionately referred to by the Times as the Teddy Bear of Britain. In his centenary year, Betjeman underwent something of a critical re-evaluation with Hugo Williams declaring that reading him is "a mild act of anarchy".

Betjeman spoke of the poem in an interview with the BBC

I once had an operation - nothing bad but of course one thought one was going to die - and I went to recover on the shores of the New Forest at a place called Beaulieu where they have sharpies - little boats. [They were originally carvel built, with a hard chine. 16ft (O.A.) 15'5" (W.L.) Sail area of 110. Centre Board, Bermudan sloop-Ed]. And while I was there a most beautiful girl came by in a sharpie and asked me the time - I didn't know it, I just made it up - I couldn't do anything, I wanted to oblige her in every possible way. And when I got back to my hosts I asked who she was and they said she was called Clemency Buckland and she was the daughter of a general.

Youth and Age on Beaulieu River Hants
By John Betjeman 

Early sun on Beaulieu water
lights the undersides of oaks,
Clumps of leaves it floods and blanches
Which the double sunlight soaks;
To her craft on Beaulieu water
Clemency the generals daughter
pulls across with even strokes.

Schoolboy-sure she is this morning;
Soon her sharpie’s rigg’d and free.
Cool beneath a garden awning
Mrs Fairclough sipping tea
And raising large long distance glasses
As the little sharpie passes
Sighs our sailor girl to see:

Tulip figure so appealing
Oval face so serious - eyed,
Tree-roots pass’d and muddy beaches.
On to huge and lake-like reaches,
Soft and sun-warm see her glide-
Slacks slim young limbs revealing,
Sun-brown arm the tiller feeling,
with the wind and with the tide.

Evening light will bring the water;
Day long sun will burst the bud,
Clemency the General’s daughter,
Will return upon the flood.
But the older woman only
Knows the ebb-tide leaves her lonely
With the shining fields of mud.

The Beaulieu River

Buckler’s Hard on the Beaulieu River. Image-Baxter Bradford

You should really listen to Betjeman read his own poem here

If you have a suggestion for some more maritime poetry worth sharing, let us know