We’re as lonely as a cloud but the Romance isn’t dead – The Guardian

I read with interest your editorial (The Guardian view on poetry for dark times: add Wordsworth to the stockpile, 16 March) the day after my wife and I had taken a walk on Hampstead Heath to have a break from our self-imposed isolation. On the slope in front of Kenwood House we came upon Wordsworths host of golden daffodils and a magnolia tree in full bloom. This was the spot where, 40 years ago, our daughters played as children. Recalling that this year is the 250th anniversary of Wordsworths birth, on returning home I penned this mock-Romantic poem, titled Far from the Madding Crowd, Lonely as a Cloud, for our daughters and granddaughters:

As we wandered far from the madding crowdWith Hardy thoughts and Worthy wordsAll at once appeared a golden cloudof daffodils upon the sward.The greenwood tree upon the slopewhere once two little children playedIn magnolia blossom now arrayedmay still recall their childhood games And perhaps, also their names.

Not until I read the editorial was I reminded of the romantic poets fascination with the mysterious intensity of childhood.Mike FaulknerLondon

Surely the most apposite lines of Wordsworths poetry for our era of climate crisis is the stanza from his Intimations of Immortality:

The Rainbow comes and goes, /And lovely is the Rose, / The Moon doth with delight, / Look round her when the heavens are bare, / Waters on a starry night, / Are beautiful and fair, / The sunshine is a glorious birth; / But yet I know, whereer I go, / That there hath past away a glory from the earth.

I often find myself muttering those lines these days as I contemplate the loss of variety in our natural world. Wordsworth didnt know the half of it.Isabella StoneSheffield

Like Suzanne Moore (How do we face coronavirus? Common decency is our only hope, 17 March), I too am rereading Camuss La Peste, which I studied for A-level. Ms Moore quotes the main character, Dr Rieux, as saying its not a question of heroism but a matter of common decency. Interestingly, the original French is honntet and, when asked what he means by that, Rieux replies: in my case it means doing my job. Like Camus noble character in his book, thats exactly what our NHS is doing for us against all odds.Anne AbbottBath

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We're as lonely as a cloud but the Romance isn't dead - The Guardian

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