XXVI
Look at what Wordsworth
Has done to our Lakes countryside.
The wild and rolling fells are now
Swamped by a day tripper tide.
Where Wordsworth shared his solitude
With hosts of daffodils
Drivers now queue nose to tail
Up and down the hills.
Wandering lonely as a cloud
Is impossible if you are near
Derwent Water - Ambleside
And specially Windermere.
Wordsworth's Lake District
With wild flower meads was scented.
The air we breathe in now has been
Combustion engine vented.
As everybody seeks out
The Lakeland Wordsworth knew
Boots destroy his daffodils
And tourists ruin the view.
The cars - noise - litter
Must make the locals lament
That Wordsworth didn't see daffodils
In Sussex - or Cornwall - or Kent.
March 1989
To G.C.
