Sometimes, when I am surfing the Web for information, I come across something that really speaks to me and makes me stop and think. This was the case when I saw the photo of the Martin Jennings' statue of John Betjeman at St. Pancras Station.  He's standing there, so un-dusty-poet-like, holding onto his hat, with his coat tails flying, as though the train just flew into the station. He's gazing upwards, with a look of wonder on his face, like the very first time he set eyes on the magnificent arch of the station.  Why was he there?  I just had to find out.

I have discovered a lot about John Betjeman since I found this picture, and read a lot of his poetry (coming from a very different place than when it was "required reading" in school) and anyone less like a "dusty poet" is hard to find.    Born in 1906, his family was from the Netherlands, and during World War I dropped the second "n" from their last name Betjemann, so it would sound less German.  John had happy childhood memories of family holidays in Trebetherick, Cornwall, where he eventually settled and is buried.  In his loneliness from being an only child, he took comfort from his teddy bear Archibald Ormsby-Gore (known as Archie) and his elephant known as Jumbo.  Archie was featured in Betjeman's children's book, "Archie and the Strict Baptists." Archie and Jumbo went to Oxford with him, which later inspired his contemporary Evelyn Waugh to include Sebastian Flyte's teddy bear Aloysius in Brideshead Revisited.

John did not make good use of his educational opportunities at Oxford, where he did not complete his degree, but he made the acquaintance of many people who would influence his work, including Louis MacNeice, W.H.Auden, Maurice Bowra and the Sitwells. His various positions included work in teaching, journalism, all kinds of writing and in later years, in broadcasting.  Throughout his life, he wrote his poems.  John was rejected for active service during World War II, but worked for the Ministry of Information. He became the British press attache in Dublin, which was a neutral country.  He is rumored to have been selected for assassination by the IRA, but the order was rescinded, supposedly after a local commander read his poetry and decided he was no threat.

From "In Westminster" . . .

"Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans,

Spare their women for Thy Sake,

And if that is not too easy

We will pardon Thy Mistake.

But, gracious Lord, whate'er shall be,

Don't let anyone bomb me."

From "A Bay in Anglesey" : . . .

"Far to the eastward, over there,

Snowdon rises in pearl-gray air

Multiple lark-song, whispering bents,

The thymy, turfy and salty scents

And filling in, brimming in, sparkling and free

The sweet susurration of incoming sea."

His passions were Victorian architecture, railways, Cornwall and campaigning against the evils of "progress." His second book, called "Ghastly Good Taste" was a commentary on architecture.  He was a founding member of the Victorian Society.  With his friend Jack Beddington, he developed the "Shell Guides," and wrote the books on "Cornwall" and "Devon" himself.  He was honored with the "CBE" in 1960, was knighted in 1969 and became Poet Laureate in 1972.  

From "Inexpensive Progress": . . .

"Let's say goodbye to hedges

And roads with grassy edges

And winding country lanes,

Let all things travel faster

Where motor car is master

Till only Speed remains."

Louis MacNeice called Betjeman a "triumphant misfit," and said "But the things he was regarded as eccentric for admiring during his lifetime are the things that we have learned to hold dear."  Betjeman described himself as "a poet and hack" in "Who's Who."  He never took himself too seriously.  His poems are often humorous, and in broadcasting, he exploited his bumbling and fogeyish image. Because he wrote about everyday life, satirising modern society, and was often seen on television, his poems reached a much larger audience than the norm. His combination of eccentricity and Englishness are all key ingredients in his enduring popularity. Each year a tea party called "Trains and Buttered Toast" is held around his statue at St. Pancras, including poetry readings, and the celebrating of the winners of the John Betjeman Young Peoples' Poetry Competition.

From: "Middlesex": . . .

"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 was a passionate defender of Victorian architecture and gave a lot of his time and energy campaigning to preserve it. He played a large part in the saving of the famous facade of St. Pancras railway station. As Andrew Motion, one of Betjeman's successors as Poet Laureate said, "He didn't save it singlehandedly, but it certainly wouldn't have happened without him."  And Louis MacNeice: "What he did as a savior of 19th-century architecture is extraordinary."  In 2007, the statue at St. Pancras was unveiled by the poet's daughter, Candida Lycett Green.  Around the base of the statue are carved lines from Betjeman poems, chosen by the sculptor, including:

                                                 "Here where the cliffs alone prevail.

                                                  I stand exultant, neutral, free,

                                                 And from the cushion of the gale.

                                                 Behold a huge consoling sea."

Enjoy a reading of Betjeman's poem "Slough" on U-tube .