Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

It isn't fit for humans now, 

There isn't grass to graze a cow. 

Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens

Those air -conditioned, bright canteens, 

Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans, 

Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-

A house for ninety-seven down

And once a week a half a crown 

For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin

Who'll always cheat and always win, 

Who washes his repulsive skin 

In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak

And smash his hands so used to stroke

And stop his boring dirty joke

And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add

The profits of the stinking cad;

It's not their fault that they are mad, 

They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know 

The birdsong from the radio, 

It's not their fault they often go 

To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars

In various bogus-Tudor bars 

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care

Their wives frizz out peroxide hair

And dry it in synthetic air

And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough

To get it ready for the plough.

The cabbages are coming now;

The earth exhales.

*****

GCSE English Literature students have to analyse

 an unseen poem for part of their exam. 

Every year, I wonder who chooses these 'unseen' poems!

There's really no knowing what will come up in the exam

and in a way it doesn't really matter as long as the students

have a 'formula', so to speak .

Anyway, I've chosen this one to give to my students,

 to practise their unseen analysis.

Written in 1937, as a protest against the many factories which were

being built in Slough, the poem brought much protest

and Betjeman was rather unpopular with some, for daring

 to write such mockery!

If anyone knows Slough or indeed lives in the town

do let us know what it is really like!!

;-)

(Photo courtesy of Google images)