Of course the main reason I like the statue so much is that it sits at the end of the Eurostar platform to Paris.
Oh, and in case you missed it, 500 Words is back. Pick up your assignments in yesterday's post.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Saturday Statuary
Of course the main reason I like the statue so much is that it sits at the end of the Eurostar platform to Paris.
Oh, and in case you missed it, 500 Words is back. Pick up your assignments in yesterday's post.
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7 comments:
That's a charming sculpture. It has personality and place.
I do love the sculpture, with his billowing coat and amazing facial expression!
From what I read, Sir John sounds like a fascinating character, determined to follow his own path, regardless of what others thought. Great statue, in a very fitting location.
I have forgotten what the words are... are they the same as the shell by the sea?
It does indeed, Petrea.
He was a lovely man, a marvellous poet and a great lover of architecture and trains so it is only fit and proper that he now resides in our most spectacular Victorian Gothick extravaganza of a railway station (which he helped save from demolition in the 1960s) gazing up at the huge clock beneath which lovers of his era traditionally trysted.
It's a great likeness, Neetzy. He was a typical Englishman: as rotund and dishevelled as I am.
Ms.M. you're right. He definitely ploughed his own furrow and we love him the more for it.
Mum, Maggi Hambling's wonderful scallop sculpture honouring Benjamin Britten has lines from his opera Peter Grimes pierced around the perimeter ("I hear those voices that will not be drowned").
Around Betjeman's feet are his name and dates and the words, "Who saved this glorious station" and around the rim are lines from "Cornish Cliffs" -
"And in the shadowless unclouded glare,
Deep blue above us fades to whiteness where,
A misty sea-line meets the wash of air."
Which pretty much describes the view from the Britten Memorial so little wonder you thought they were the same lines.
It's beautifully fitting that they portrayed the man looking up at the clock, like he's rushing to his train ... or to meet his lover and not some musty old statue-like pose.
You're right, Speedway. So much better than a boring, formal pose. And so very like the man himself. He was one of those rare things: a universally loved national treasure.
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