Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AT THE FIRE-FIGHTERS' POST, by CAMILLA DOYLE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT THE FIRE-FIGHTERS' POST, by                    
First Line: This was a stately victorian drawing-room
Last Line: How happy you were.
Subject(s): Firefighters; Past


This was a stately Victorian drawing-room
Where ladies worked at tatting,
Resting on ottomans,
Sitting down sideways
To manage their crinolines gracefully.
Now by day it is an office
Filled with desks and typewriters

Quite unsuited to any room planned for leisure,
To any room adorned with moulded cornice,
With ornate fireplace;
And by night our beds, our lanterns, our helmets
Bring still more confusion,
Till that which had merely
Come down in the world
Grows as wild as a dream.

It was just as well, tranquil Victorian ladies,
That you, like all the folk of your period,
Prided yourselves on common-sense,
Disbelieved in the Second Sight,
Never consulted a seer to tell you the future,
Never guessed what lay in store for your home.

But also you never guessed
How happy you were.





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