Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Slough Comments

Rating: 4.1

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
...
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John Betjeman
COMMENTS
Denys E. W. Jones 25 January 2023

I would have thought that there are enough bombs falling already, without actually inviting someone to drop them.1937, same year as Guernica, if I am not mistaken.

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MAHTAB BANGALEE 24 January 2023

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough To get it ready for the plough. The cabbages are coming now; The earth exhales.

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MAHTAB BANGALEE 24 January 2023

Slough became home to 850 new factories just before the outbreak of world war two. The "Trading Estate", first seen in Slough, was quickly reproduced throughout Britain, prompting the poem in 1937.

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MAHTAB BANGALEE 24 January 2023

Betjeman was struck by the "menace of things to come" but later regretted the poem's harshness. Betjeman was alarmed at the desecration of industrialization and modernity in general.

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Ivan Donn Carswell 19 April 2007

A grand reflection of the future possibilities of Slough. No despondence here, just the excitement of a new beginning. Wow! Rgds, Ivan

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John Betjeman

John Betjeman

London, England
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