Uploaded September 2014 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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This poem is often read at weddings. It is from Yellow Tulips: Poems 1986-2011. © Faber & Faber, 2011. You can buy it here: amazon.co.uk/Yellow-Tulips-Poems-1968-2011/dp/0571273823

Hinterhof seems to mean backyard - but I don't know much German. In context I think it is a metaphor for "nearness". There are cosy little drinking clubs that call themselves Hinterhof. When my kids used to fall out with the neighbourhood kids the ultimate rejection was "Now you can't come and play round our back".

After recording it I found a reading by Garrison Keillor, no less, in the Writer's Almanac. He reads the poem at about 3.15 minutes into the transmission: bit.ly/N4RBo2

The girl reading is from a website about how to choose wedding readings: getbeautytoday.com/how-to-choose-wedding-readings-from-books-1104.html

Stay near to me and I'll stay near to you —
As near as you are dear to me will do,
Near as the rainbow to the rain,
The west wind to the windowpane,
As fire to the hearth, as dawn to dew.

Stay true to me and I'll stay true to you —
As true as you are new to me will do,
New as the rainbow in the spray,
Utterly new in every way,
New in the way that what you say is true.

Stay near to me, stay true to me. I'll stay
As near, as true to you as heart could pray.
Heart never hoped that one might be
Half of the things you are to me —
The dawn, the fire, the rainbow and the day