• God
  • Christianity
  • Judaism
  • Buddhism & Zen
  • Awareness
  • Topics
Quotes
Poems
Proverbs
Famous Inspirational Poems, Poetry, Quotes
Sunday, June 26, 2022
  • Home
  • All Quotes
  • Inspirational Quotes
  • Stories
  • Attitude
  • Life
  • Love
  • Friendship
  • Happiness
  • Success
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • All Quotes
  • Inspirational Quotes
  • Stories
  • Attitude
  • Life
  • Love
  • Friendship
  • Happiness
  • Success
No Result
View All Result
Famous Inspirational Poems, Poetry, Quotes
No Result
View All Result

Ivor Gurney Poems >>
The Road

2 min read
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Out beyond Aldgate is a road,
And a broad,
Clean, noble thing it runs,
For the sun’s
And wind’s and man’s delight,
And the high stars at night.
There go Jewesses
And Poles and Russ and these
Pale-faced sons,
Daughter of Thames and Paul’s
Betwixt walls and high walls
Of sooted brick, ugly turned.
A hard life, hardly earned;
Routine that galls,
Being so cunning turned.
Seldom marvellous
Comes down tremulous,
Or steady on that East
is light increased.
Through smoke-fog or river mist. . . .
Never fades the sun
Out in pageants that stun
The heart from talking thereon.
Always something mars
Magnificence from stars.
From strange faces and thunder
Men must draw wonder:
Thunder
Of trams and buses crammed,
Or Saturday-night damned—
Up, seething, dodging,
Grumbling, laughing, over-busy
Crowd in Mile End crammed;
Or in one hour of joys
When football plays
Marvellous music on these jigging heart-strings,
And one lucky kick brings
Battle-winning in a Niagara of noise —
Or some furtive
Trick of professionalism
Plunges a crowd into Hell’s
Own tumult and scorn and hot-alive
Furious cataclysm —
The referee quells.
Or in sight of a painted
Pace, through the tainted
Smoke-blue atmosphere
Of Music-hall, Cinema,
Where happy Tom Parker
Or Chaplin would grin him a
Further defiance of consequence here,
Or in drinkings of beer,
Or eatings of strange fish
Or shelled things from barrows;
Stewed eels, winkles: —
Roast pea-nut mingles
Well with the whole.
Or in sight of fallen horses
Or axle-broken wheeled things
The market-gardener brings
Or the hawker his cabbages,
Some Essex husbandryings
For London’s vast maw.
Or fire-engine’s law
Of free-way when the quickest sees
Smoke or sparks rising
In places surprising
And rings in fears’ ecstasies.
For quick horseless carriages,
Brass-helmeted heroes —
But it might be advertising.
Anyhow folk live there
And daily strive there,
And earn their bread there,
Make friends, see red there,
As high on the clean hills
Where soft sea-rapture fills
The gladdened lungs.
And young souls are fleshed there
And tyrants immeshed there
As in Athens or Ukraine,
And the heart hurts the brain
Or the spirit is lashed there,
And thought is as vain,
Hope constant, and smashed there,
As away a day’s journey by train.

(Ivor Gurney)

More Poetry from Ivor Gurney:

Ivor Gurney Poems based on Topics: Mind, Light, Night, Life, Curiosity, Sense & Perception, Thought & Thinking, Music, Soul, Joy & Excitement, Fear
  • Thoughts of New England (Ivor Gurney Poems)
  • Tobacco (Ivor Gurney Poems)
  • Laventie (Ivor Gurney Poems)
  • Kilns (Ivor Gurney Poems)
  • Cut Flowers (Ivor Gurney Poems)
  • La Gorgues (Ivor Gurney Poems)

Browse All: Ivor Gurney Poems

Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:

Based on Topics: Life Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Mind Poems, Soul Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Friendship Poems, Place Poems, Hope Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems

Based on Keywords: galls, parker, stewed, quells, buses, shelled, hawker, fleshed, jigging, referee, cataclysm

  • Hymn To Life (James Schuyler Poems)
  • The Hind And The Panther, A Poem In Three Parts : Part I. (John Henry Dryden Poems)
  • The Tragedy of White Injustice (Marcus Mosiah Garvey Poems)
  • The Sea-Gull (Hanford Lennox Gordon Poems)
  • The Progres Of The Soule (John Donne Poems)

Related Posts

Things That Never Die (Charles Dickens Poem)

The Iliad: Book 1 (Homer Poems)

Orlando Furioso Canto 4 (Ludovico Ariosto Poems)

The Heroic Enthusiasts: Part 2: Fourth Dialogue (Giordano Bruno Poems)

Fitz Adam’s Story (James Russell Lowell Poems)

Rambles In Waltham Forest (Marguerite Blessington Poems)

Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Popular Topics

Life Poems - Love Poems - Happiness Poems - Success Poems - Friendship Poems - Sadness Poems - Inspirational Poems
View All Topics

Other Inspiring Sections

Inspirational Stories – Quotes – Proverbs

Welcome to Inspirational Stories, we believe in holding yourself together, accepting life, and making the inspired decisions that change the horizons of their life. This podium is developed for the people who want to gift compassion and empathy to the people who have been given nothing in their life and making them rise above those times. Read more.
  • God
  • Christianity
  • Judaism
  • Buddhism & Zen
  • Awareness
  • Topics

© 2020 Inspirational Stories

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Quotes
  • Poems
  • Proverbs
  • Inspirational Stories
  • Attitude Stories
  • Life Stories
  • Love Stories
  • Friendship
  • Happiness
  • Success
  • Parental

© 2020 Inspirational Stories

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In