John Betjeman Quotes

55 Sourced Quotes

Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it's the oil of life.

John Betjeman
Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells
And sights before the dark of reason grows.

John Betjeman
Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.

John Betjeman
Pam, I adore you, Pam, you great big mountainous sports girl,
Whizzing them over the net, full of the strength of five.

John Betjeman
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman
As Cook is a little unnerved;
You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
And I must have things daintily served.

John Betjeman
The gas was on in the Institute,
The flare was up in the gymn,
A man was running a mineral line,
A lass was singing a hymn,
When Captain Webb the Dawley man,
Captain Webb from Dawley,
Came swimming along in the old canal
That carries the bricks to Lewley.

John Betjeman
The Church's Restoration
In eighteen-eighty-three
Has left for contemplation
Not what there used to be.

John Betjeman
Ghastly Good Taste, or a Depressing Story of the Rise and Fall of English Architecture.

John Betjeman
Sing on, with hymns uproarious,
Ye humble and aloof,
Look up! and oh how glorious
He has restored the roof!

John Betjeman
Oh shall I see the Thames again?
The prow-promoted gems again,
As beefy ATS
Without their hats
Come shooting through the bridge?
And "cheerioh" and "cheeri-bye"
Across the waste of waters die,
And low the mists of evening lie
And lightly skims the midge.

John Betjeman
Stony seaboard, far and foreign,
Stony hills poured over space,
Stony outcrop of the Burren,
Stones in every fertile place,
Little fields with boulders dotted,
Grey-stone shoulders saffron-spotted,
Stone-walled cabins thatched with reeds,
Where a Stone Age people breeds
The last of Europe's stone age race.

John Betjeman
He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer
As he gazed at the London skies
Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains
Or was it his bees-winged eyes?
He rose, and he put down The Yellow Book.
He staggered—and, terrible-eyed,
He brushed past the palms on the staircase
And was helped to a hansom outside.

John Betjeman
And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad,
And Christmas-morning bells say 'Come!'
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

John Betjeman
In the licorice fields at Pontefract
My love and I did meet
And many a burdened licorice bush
Was blooming round our feet;
Red hair she had and golden skin,
Her sulky lips were shaped for sin,
Her sturdy legs were flannel-slack'd
The strongest legs in Pontefract.

John Betjeman
Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
Runs the red electric train,
With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's
Daintily alights Elaine;
Hurries down the concrete station
With a frown of concentration,
Out into the outskirt's edges
Where a few surviving hedges
Keep alive our lost Elysium—rural Middlesex again.

John Betjeman
Waiter With Fish Order: Are you smelt, sir?
John Betjeman: Only by the discerning.

John Betjeman
He would have liked to say goodbye,
Shake hands with many friends.
In Highgate now his finger-bones
Stick through his finger-ends. You, God, who treat him thus and thus,
Say, "Save his soul and pray."
You ask me to believe You and
I only see decay.

John Betjeman
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?

John Betjeman
Topography is one of my chief themes in my poetry... about the country, the suburbs and the seaside... then there come's love... and increasingly, the fear of death.

John Betjeman
And London shops on Christmas Eve Are strung with silver bells and flowers As hurrying clerks the City leave To pigeon-haunted classic towers, And marbled clouds go scudding by The many-steepled London sky

John Betjeman
A whispering and watery Norfolk sound
Telling of all the moonlit reeds around.

John Betjeman
I have a Vision of the Future, chum. The workers flats in fields of soya beans tower up like silver pencils, score on score.

John Betjeman
I am still reeling with delight at the soaring majesty of Norfolk.

John Betjeman
Oh! full Surrey twilight! importunate band!
Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl's hand!

John Betjeman
And I think it was the outline of that church tower at Belaugh against the sky which gave me a passion for churches so that every church I've past since I've wanted to stop and look in.

John Betjeman
Imprisoned in a cage of sound, even the trivial seems profound

John Betjeman
Oh Wasn't it naughty of Smudges? Oh, Mummy, I'm sick with disgust. She threww me in front of the judges, And my silly old collar-bone's bust.

John Betjeman
Approval of what is approved of
Is as false as a well-kept vow.

John Betjeman
And now, dear Lord, I cannot wait Because I have a luncheon date.

John Betjeman
History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side.

John Betjeman