Betjeman - Bicycles

Myfanwy at Oxford

Pink may, double may, dead laburnum
Shedding an Anglo-Jackson shade,
Shall we ever, my staunch Myfanwy,
Bicycle down to North Parade?
Kant on the handle-bars, Marx in the saddlebag,
Light my touch on your shoulder-blade.

Sancta Hilda, Myfanwyatia
Evansensis - I hold your heart,
Willowy banks of a willowy Cherwell a
Willowy figure with lips apart,
Strong and willowy, strong to pillow me,
Gold Myfanwy, kisses and art.

Tubular bells of tall St. Barnabas,
Single clatter above St. Paul,
Chasuble, acolyte, incense-offering,
Spectacled faces held in thrall.
There in the nimbus and Comper tracery
Gold Myfanwy blesses us all.

Gleam of gas upon Oxford station,
Gleam of gas on her straight gold hair,
Hair flung back with an ostentation,
Waiting alone for a girl friend there.
Second in Mods and a Third in Theology
Come to breathe again Oxford air.

Her Myfanwy as in Cadena days,
Her Myfanwy, a schoolgirl voice,
Tentative brush of a cheek in a cocoa crush,
Coffee and Ulysses, Tennyson, Joyce,
Alpha-minded and other dimensional,
Freud or Calvary? Take your choice.

Her Myfanwy? My Myfanwy.
Bicycle bells in a Boar's Hill Pine,
Stedman Triple from All Saints' steeple,
Tom and his hundred and one at nine,
Bells of Butterfield, caught in Keble,
Sally and backstroke answer "Mine!"

John Betjeman





Myfanwy

Kind o'er the kinderbank leans my Myfanwy,
White o'er the playpen the sheen of her dress,
Fresh from the bathroom and soft in the nursery
Soap scented fingers I long to caress.

Were you a prefect and head of your dormit'ry?
Were you a hockey girl, tennis or gym?
Who was your favourite? Who had a crush on you?
Which were the baths where they taught you to swim?

Smooth down the Avenue glitters the bicycle,
Black-stockinged legs under navy blue serge,
Home and Colonial, Star, International,
Balancing bicycle leant on the verge.

Trace me your wheel-tracks, you fortunate bicycle,
Out of the shopping and into the dark,
Back down the avenue, back to the pottingshed,
Back to the house on the fringe of the park.

Golden the light on the locks of Myfanwy,
Golden the light on the book on her knee,
Finger marked pages of Rackham's Hans Anderson,
Time for the children to come down to tea.

Oh! Fullers angel-cake, Robertson's marmalade,
Liberty lampshade, come shine on us all,
My! what a spread for the friends of Myfanwy,
Some in the alcove and some in the hall.

Then what sardines in half-lighted passages!
Locking of fingers in long hide-and-seek.
You will protect me, my silken Myfanwy,
Ring leader, tom-boy, and chum to the weak.

John Betjeman





Senex

Oh would I could subdue the flesh
Which sadly troubles me!
And then perhaps could view the flesh
As though I never knew the flesh
And merry misery.

To see the golden hiking girl
With wind about her hair,
The tennis-playing, biking girl,
The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
To see and not to care.

At sundown on my tricycle
I tour the Borough's edge,
And icy as an icicle
See bicycle by bicycle
Stacked waiting in the hedge.

Get down from me! I thunder there,
You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
Suspenders torn asunder there
And buttocks in your paws!

Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
They make me ill with lust.
Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
That flaxen hair is dust.

John Betjeman

James Thomson wrote:
Myfanwy at Oxford

---8-----

And of course: ""Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the
human race." --H.G. Wells

--
Guy

Just zis Guy, you know?:

And of course: ""Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the
human race." --H.G. Wells

Talking about authors, has anyone read Jerome K. Jerome's _Three Men on
the Bummel_? It's been on my reading list for a while, but I've never
gotten round to it.

--
John

John Dunlop wrote:
Just zis Guy, you know?:

And of course: ""Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the
human race." --H.G. Wells

Talking about authors, has anyone read Jerome K. Jerome's _Three Men on
the Bummel_? It's been on my reading list for a while, but I've never
gotten round to it.

I tried to read it on the way to see Bernard Hinault come second in the
Tour de France. I'm sorry to say that I found it to be very dull and
dated. My copy is somewhere in the English Channel. If you find it you
can keep it!

Roger Thorpe

On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:51:40 +0100, Roger Thorpe
wrote:

John Dunlop wrote:
Just zis Guy, you know?:

And of course: ""Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the
human race." --H.G. Wells

Talking about authors, has anyone read Jerome K. Jerome's _Three Men on
the Bummel_? It's been on my reading list for a while, but I've never
gotten round to it.

I tried to read it on the way to see Bernard Hinault come second in the
Tour de France. I'm sorry to say that I found it to be very dull and
dated. My copy is somewhere in the English Channel. If you find it you
can keep it!

I have it on my mp3 player, so I can listen to it while I cycle. Read
by Hugh Lawrie I believe.

Elsewhere on teh intarwebs I have this line from it as a sig:

'There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.'



--
Tim

In ,
Tim Hall tweaked the Babbage-Engine to
tell us:

Elsewhere on teh intarwebs I have this line from it as a sig:

'There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.'

Does nutty know this ;-)

--
Dave Larrington
http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk
Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olives, chives!

On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:55:15 +0100, "Dave Larrington"
wrote:

In ,
Tim Hall tweaked the Babbage-Engine to
tell us:

Elsewhere on teh intarwebs I have this line from it as a sig:

'There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.'

Does nutty know this ;-)


I think nutty is giving it a good ignoring to. I know I would.
--
Tim

On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:17:00 +0100, Tim Hall
wrote:

Elsewhere on teh intarwebs I have this line from it as a sig:

'There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.'

tee-hee :-)

Must find chapter and vers so I can add it to
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/wiki/Cycling_quotes

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/urc | http://www.nohelmetlaw.org.uk/

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Newsgroup may contain nuts.

John Dunlop wrote:
Just zis Guy, you know?:

And of course: ""Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the
human race." --H.G. Wells

Talking about authors, has anyone read Jerome K. Jerome's _Three Men on
the Bummel_? It's been on my reading list for a while, but I've never
gotten round to it.


Yes, don't bother it's no where near as good as 3 men in a boat.

I can however recomend "Boogie up the river", but only after you have
read "500 mile walkies"

In ,
Just zis Guy, you know? tweaked the Babbage-Engine
to tell us:
On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:17:00 +0100, Tim Hall
wrote:

Elsewhere on teh intarwebs I have this line from it as a sig:

'There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.'

tee-hee :-)

Must find chapter and vers so I can add it to
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/wiki/Cycling_quotes

And while you're at it, try Andy Gates' "bicycle: a machine for turning
calories into scar tissue"

--
Dave Larrington
http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk
uck Wa