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Lord Cozens Hardy

by John Betjeman
 

Oh Lord Cozens Hardy
  Your mausoleum is cold,
The dry brown grass is brittle
  And frozen hard the mould
And where those Grecian columns rise
  So white among the dark
Of yew trees and of hollies in
  That corner of the park
By Norfolk oaks surrounded
  Whose branches seem to talk,
I know, Lord Cozens Hardy,
  I would not like to walk.

And even in the summer,
  On a bright East-Anglian day
When round your Doric portico
  Your children's children play
There's a something in the stillness
  And our waiting eyes are drawn
From the butler and the footman
  Bringing tea out on the lawn,
From the little silver spirit lamp
  That burns so blue and still,
To the half-seen mausoleum
  In the oak trees on the hill.

But when, Lord Cozens Hardy,
  November stars are bright,
And the King's Head Inn at Letheringsett
  Is shutting for the night,
The villagers have told me
  That they do not like to pass
Near your curious mausoleum
  Moon-shadowed on the grass
For fear of seeing walking
  In the season of All Souls
That first Lord Cozens Hardy,
  The Master of the Rolls.

 
Norfolk Poems
 

 

 

 

 

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