John Betjeman's Cornwall Poem by Francis Duggan

The famous poet John Betjeman his bones are at rest forever more
Far from the coastal lands he glorified of the wind swept Cornish shore
On windy and sunny days he sat on the cliffs and watched the wild waves dance
All of the way from Cornwall to the Islands close to France.

England's late Poet Laureate had a love affair with Cornwall
And of his great poems of the Cornish coast fond memories I recall
And thanks to him I too fell in love with Cornwall though in that landscape I had never been
And I can only visualize and regret the beauty I had missed and would have seen

I still can visualize the marvellous word smith on a Cornish cliff looking out on the sea
And true to his genius he took in the wild beauty and wrote it down in beautiful poetry
The wild Atlantic waves against the fore shore splashing was blowing up the sea spray in his face
And it would not take a genius to work it out why one like him should fall in love with such a place.

John Betjeman the poet who fell for Cornwall's beauty a beauty that in verse he glorified
And the Cornish fields he wrote of in his verses by poetry lovers is still read Worldwide
And though the great poet's bones are resting elsewhere his soul in the green coastal fields remain
And some where on those cliffs his ghost is standing watching the waves that dance to France again.