Skenfrith Threnody

Draw the blinds down in the mansion
Where the wooded hill-slopes heave—
Esme's called to Higher Service
On a windy Easter Eve.

Take the gloomy news to Skenfrith
Past the pink-grey castle walls
Where the Reverend Canon Betjeman
Is rarely seen, and never calls.

Never seen at Boy Scout rallies
Tying knots in hanks of rope
But shut up, writing in his study
Sermons on the Skenfrith Cope.

Cora Esme though would be there
Pinning on the Woodcraft Badge
All the Guides and Brownies round her—
Gwen and Gladys, Babs and Madge.

Ruffled now with wind the Monnow
At this chilly Easter-tide—
Cora Esme, high above it
Marches on, a heav'nly Guide.

Cherub Brownies flock to greet her
As she strides to make her tryst,
On from Skenfrith, on to glory,
To her great Scout-Master, Christ.

Oh, myopic Canon Betjeman,
Innocent of Esme's game!
Now she's there to put a word in
God won't treat you quite the same.

probably early 1930s

NOTES

• comments by Charles Thomas (archaeologist 1928–2016, colleague and friend of SP; letter of 10-i-1998):
'Skenfrith Castle is about 4 miles up the River Monnow from Monmouth. SP was on the staff of the Welsh Commission 1929-34 [resigned 1933: Eds] but they weren't working then in Monmouth as far as I know. This suggests that 'Cora Esme' was real and that he'd read some obituary in the Western Mail or whatever, and wrote this for JB: what Betjeman's connection with Skenfrith was I don't know. I can't find anything in JB's Collected Poems.'
• John Betjeman (1906–1984) Poet Laureate and long-term family friend of the Piggotts
• the Skenfrith Cope ecclesiastical vestment, probably 15th-century