Sunday 1 November 2009

November - -

No sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon!
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--
No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--
No end to any Row--
No indications where the Crescents go--
No top to any steeple--
No recognitions of familiar people--
No courtesies for showing 'em--
No knowing 'em!
No traveling at all--no locomotion--
No inkling of the way--no notion--
"No go" by land or ocean--
No mail--no post--
No news from any foreign coast--
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--
November! -  - Thomas Hood
- - here it is already – I am never quite sure where the year goes to and again it seems to have disappeared before  I had time to capture it. I found this poem surfacing in my head again as I often do when November comes around - - I love its evocative description - - I remember  many foggy November days that this captures so perfectly - - I grew up in an area surrounded by cotton & woollen mills – huge chimneys belching black smoke into the atmosphere, turning the sky a dirty grey, lit by the lurid yellow street lamps as darkness fell, hoarding  the smoke before returning to earth the gift - -  Fog - -  creeping in – silent and insidious,  dampening the pavements, slithering down from the yellowy skies throughout the day, so that by the end of school, as the day began to draw in, and darkness began to fall the buses were no longer running, and mummy’s were standing by the gates with scarves to muffle up to try to keep that dirty yellow mist out of their children’s lungs. We  little ones who lived further away were bundled up in our coats by the teachers, hatted and gloved, scarves round our mouths, marshalled together and “crocced” up the hill by Mrs Taylor - to be met by assorted mummy's waiting at the end of side roads to collect their own little ones, so that by the time we reached Springfield Lane there were just 2 of clinging tight to Mrs Taylor's hands. We would be handed over to either my mummy or Kenneth's mummy to be taken home to our respective homes (we lived next door to each other), there to be fussed over and fed on an old fashioned high tea - perhaps of hash, boiled eggs and buttery 'soldiers'.
Its not foggy here today -  - its raining very hard and very steadily -  - but visibility isn't good - which is why I think the poem came into my head!

Thanks for stopping by

Gura mie ayd. J x

13 comments:

  1. I remember the smog, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, it was very scary!

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  2. What a wonderful entry today - so poetic, descriptive and evocotive (excuse spelling). Terrific!

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  3. I love that poem! And I love where it led you. I really enjoyed reading this.

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  4. Oh this was just lovely, I could FEEL every word. Thank you for sharing this memory.

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  5. Oh I remember Novembers like that too. The smell after Bonfire night!! I used to always wear my hat (I love hats)for the first time on Bonfires night because that always seemed to be when the cold really came in. Thanks for the memory.

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  6. Hello from class *waves*
    What a wonderful poem and wonderful memories too,
    thank you for sharing :-)

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  7. What a lovely poem. No smog here on the South Coast, but I can imagine how horrible it was!

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  8. What a perfect poem for November. I like your reminiscing.

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  9. Funny, I clicked on this today and then I remembered it and -yes! I had commented at the time! I still love this poem.

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  10. Lovely poem and I can see why you like this post. Your writing is very descriptive.

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  11. Beautifully written, I felt like I was there, lovely post!

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  12. So perfectly November! Great poem and I love your own vignette too. Your language was so descriptive, it really drew me right in - I could feel the dank fog. Great post!
    (& thanks for taking time to come back to my blog since Blogger was acting up for you last week!)

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Hi and welcome - thanks for taking the time to let me know you called.

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