A. L. Morton

Blow, Blow ...



Strike down,
O marble wind,
Out of the moon:

Drop your sharp tendrils
Down from the marshalled stars.

Blow into Kentish Town
From Highgate, Highbury:

Hammer ascetic tunes
On the stretched purgatory of Camden Road.

March,
An invading host,
To ravish Bloomsbury:
Or
Like the passionate breath of Linnell’s guest
Leap out of Hampstead.



SOURCE: Morton, A. L. (Arthur Leslie). “Blow, Blow ...” [poem], in History and the Imagination: Selected Writings of A. L. Morton, edited by Margot Heinemann and Willie Thompson (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990), p. 325.

Note: Linnell’s guest in Hampstead surely refers to William Blake, who indeed was a guest of painter John Linnell (1792-1882) in Hampstead.


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Uploaded 18 February 2019

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