In a Forgotten Field in England

Carl Halling

He had no insight into the mysteries

Of the gilded sports

Of the British social elite,

By the time he arrived at his beloved college,

Long, long ago in a long-forgotten England,

 

And in later years he came to the opinion

That if he possessed a single quality

That might be termed noble

He owed it in part to his education,

And not least the four years he spent there,

 

And there’d be times when certain pieces

Of quintessentially English pastoral music

Still had the power to evoke his strange and sudden vanishing,

While seeming to him to bespeak a passion

For the Arcadian soul of England that verged on the ecstatic,

 

And others when he’d dream of a day

He might return to the scene of his flight as if in atonement,

And commune with the soul of his beloved England,

With a passion verging on the ecstatic,

And then put the memory to rest for all time,

 

And he absconded once...just the once it was...

To avoid being chastised for something foolish he did,

And he finished up wandering, forlornly wandering,

His boots freshly caked with the purest English soil,

Long, long ago in a forgotten field in England.

  • Author: Carl Halling (Offline Offline)
  • Published: November 19th, 2016 23:19
  • Comment from author about the poem: In a Forgotten Field in England was distilled in late 2016 from an autobiographical piece entitled Leitmotifs from an English Pastorale, dating from several years earlier, and which will ultimately undergo a process of systematic marginalization, as I no longer identify with it to any degree.
  • Category: Reflection
  • Views: 15
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Comments1

  • Augustus

    Interesting life of what I think is anti- hero as he never was really successful at anything and died young. Is this young man now considered a hero, perhaps representing rebellion of the young against the judeo-Christian work ethic? Nicely done.

    • Carl Halling

      Hi Augustus, I like the fact that interpretation is 'open' as it were, yours intrigues me. The 'anti-hero' here (and to a degree, yes he is, or was) was certainly part of a generation of rebellious youth, although he didn't die young: it could be argued he came close, very close. As I say, your insightful comment really fascinates me, thank you.



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