Bricks • Mortar • Imagination • Words
The Texts - John Constable
Time Out Of Mind
At first sight, you might say:
Modest, unassuming
In a well-bred Hampshire way.
A parish church, dreaming
Its snail-like extrusion.
Appearances deceive.
That westbound nave, conceived
On a far grander scale,
The emanation of a Bishop's Throne:
A space bound in stone
To make men dwindle before God
Cast in the image of a feudal Lord.
Bad drainage and subsidence tamed their pride.
A tower fell. Walls sagged. The snail
Drew in its horns to shore up from inside.
