Candlewick

Born into pavements of the Bridge Within
I'm blessed by Saint Mary Woolnoth's bells.
I have survived the plight of grey and green.

I scaled the cliffs where joy expectant dwells,
I kissed the hills in the approaching dark,
I drank the sparkling mead from hidden wells,

Then from a terrace in a slumbrous park
I saw a ship sail forth and disappear
That I had been forbidden to embark.

I now depart to chambers by the pier
And make my plea before the laughing King
So I have mirth enough to persevere,

Lest I succumb to weakness that has been
Born into pavements of the Bridge Within.

-- February 2014

Candlewick and Bridge Within are two wards in the City of London with Gracechurch Street forming the boundary between them. Technically, the Bridge Within is the part of the ward of Bridge located north of the Thames. It was de jure a separate ward between 1550 and 1899. Saint Mary Woolnoth is a church in the neighbouring ward of Langbourn, renowned for the peculiar sound of its bells at nine o'clock in the morning.

The principal technical aim of this exercise has been to replicate faithfully the rather strict terza rima pseudo-sonnet form of Frost's “Acquainted with the Night”. Some particular imagery may have been semi-consciously adopted from “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”. Other acknowledgements go to whom they are due.