Alnwick Castle Poem by Paul Reed

O, Alnwick Castle on August noon
Standing firm against the Summer's swoon
Stronghold for seven hundred years
To the Percys and their sons and heirs

We stand high upon ramparts proud
Above the clinging and jostling crowd
Overlooking the Aln free-flowing
Your flag ruffling amidst breeze blowing

Grassy meadows fragrantly creep
Voles through verdant clover stems peep
Cowering under the turbulent skies
Rounded hilltops on which horizon lies

And over the river edge branches stoop
Within your baileys swallows swoop
Making light of life’s dreary pose
Racing past prickly thorn on rose

Guinea fowl bicker and announce their quarrel
On lawns fringed with box and laurel
The honeybees a contented song drone
Until a sharp storm turns wet the stone

The grass thus freshened and renewed
The gravel paths with showery rain imbued
The proud walls cleansed and soaked
History once again evoked

So reluctantly we leave you now
And let the evening take it’s bow
But be assured we will return again
To Alnwick Castle in sun and rain