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The Dean’s Lament, 1875
There is ever delight in the beauty
Which I behold in nature, here see
Sun and air, green hills, flowers
A church bell tolls passing hours
Simple ways of life, fresh breeze
Such contentment always agrees
But now I take my leave, and go
Into the City, high walls, yellow
Smog pervading streets of gloom
Gaslight gives out a smoky plume
A cathedral, now in icy slumber
Needs awakening, my task after
The county ways, so I take leave
For my call is plain, I do believe
Farewell, friends, farming folk
Now I must enter land of coke
Parish of Whatley now behind
St Paul’s Cathedral so assigned
Pray that I have strength to do
All that is truly needful thereto
Bring light where dark prevails
Prayer to weariness of travails.
This poem was based on "Life and Letters of Dean Church", which I am
reading over Lent. Richard Church was an Victorian Clergyman who
became Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London, at a time when it was
in need of refurbishment, both materially and spiritually; he also
wrote an excellent life of St Anselm.
When he had to leave his country parish of Whatley, he grieved
over the loss of moving to the City, from being a country Rector to a
Cathedral Dean, and this poem I hope sums up some of his feelings as
expressed in his letters. Yet ultimately, he saw that the City has
its own spiritual needs, and that was to be his calling. It is, I
think, worth remembering, that while we like to be close to the
seasons, and nature, that we should not neglect or belittle those who
live for the most part away from that, in a City. For the City itself
is but a shadow in part of the greater City of God.
01/03/2005