An editor's Envoi

"Here lies a wretch, arterially ill,
Who forty years frequented Ludgate Hill,
From whence, as furtively as any mouse,
He hopped into a neighbouring printing house,
And spent his days there and his nights within,
Or slept upon a floor in Lincoln's Inn.
Cockney he was , and loved to see St Paul's,
Pauline himself, though schooled without the wall;
And held all other places cheap and vile
Save London City's famous one square-mile
And the last church he went to was St. Bride's.
Now still he sits in sight of southern tides."

Envoi  Charles Brodribb, June 1945, Hertmonceaux, Sussex