Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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FOURTEENTH - REMEMBRANCE

By P B Taylor

I

Amid horror the ceaseless march of bandages
Blood shade-less heat dust death in the Great War
Dreams were born reaction against dull sterilities
Designed a folly piled upon a folly from traditional lore

Characters of pastel shades colourful grace notes
Shine achieve planned perfection in ordered beauty
Fantasy village architect where silver tides strongly float
Bobbing in and out to land in an ordered uniformity

“England and the Octopus” composed to combat ugliness
Ignores the motor age returning a l’arbre ou fleur
Preserving the face of ruined buildings in distress
A romantic picture time savours decay dilapidated grandeur

Colourful Gwyllt gardens brim full of emotional sadness
Compliments beautiful scene on the sunny Welsh peninsula


II

Tall flamboyant Welsh in keeping as a character
Figure from an Arthurian legend, period long past
Creating so special a scene of heights depths and vista
New ideas always an individual isolation in times fast

Welsh patrician flowing a touching taste of English styles
Such skill in that art of Jacobean artistry hidden a mere while
Linking pastiches with building Italianate pavilions
Of leafy trees springs colour dazed in fake fantasy stallions

There were other aspects, too, in your long history
Ideals to compare mixed thoughts of Italy or Greece
Your saved monuments buildings tell of varied story
A record personal mark for when existence ceases

Possessed of such a style architectural accomplishment
Portmeirion probably your finest lasting sandy achievement

CWE Harrogate September 1983