Hatter's English

Original Text: If I should die, think only this of me:       That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be       In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,       Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England’s, breathing English air,       Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away,       A pulse in the eternal mind, no less             Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;       And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,             In hea...

Born from the pen of the twentieth century poet W H Davies (1871-1940), the poem Leisure embodies one of the most characteristic literary themes of the early decades of the century; that of a lament of   fragmentation of the old world order, rapid urbanization, spread of a rapid and self centered commercial culture etc., and a longing for the revival of a lifestyle with a place for nature in it.     Divided into 7 simple rhyming couplets, the poem offers a glimpse of that treasure trove of pure bliss that we, humans, often overlook in the race of life. What is that fortune, that we possess, that we are a part of, that we fail to acknowledge while pursuing wealth and power, with vision focused only on the destination? The poet says, it’s Nature. The initial couplet appears to be simultaneously posing to be a question and a statement. It seems to carry with it an intention to ignite an introspective spirit in the reader; to question one’s priorities, to weigh on...