I've spent majority of today filling in forms and completing various pieces of paperwork and so to allow my mind to unwind I picked up one of my relaxing reads 'The Nation's Favourite Poems', which I bought in about 2001/2 when Karl's reading material was mainly poetry.
The book holds a collection of the nation's 100 best-loved poems that were the results of a poll taken in 1995! :). Number 1 is 'If' by Rudyard Kipling and number 100 is 'Warming her pearls' by Carol Ann Duffy; however, one of my favourites, at number 24, is 'Upon Westminster Bridge' by William Wordsworth written on the 3rd September 1802. I get lost in this short poem maybe because I love seeing pictures of London many years ago and William Wordsworth's words capture a romantic view of London.
UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE
Earth has not anything to show more fair;
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that might heart is lying still!
my favourite part of London - Tower Bridge
and the old sailing vessels docked at St. Katherine's Dock