"Death in Leamington" by John Betjeman (poetry reading)

Leamington Spa is famous as the destination for the annual migration of Leamings, small furry rodents who come to drink the Spa waters and then commit suicide by pushing one another off a cliff.

Actually I wasn't really paying much attention in Biology that day because I was sitting next to Mary Whetton who was a big girl for her age, who said she'd show me her stocking tops if I gave her a Woodbine. I said okay, but I still owe her two Woodbines. It's too late now, Mary, I've stopped smoking and paying to look at girls' legs.

My kids saw a TV show about the migration of "Lemons and Marmites", well they called them that, and made up a game which involved pushing one another into the sandpit. There was another game with Captain Lightbulb and Captain Nightshirt, from a film about the Irish troubles, which consisted of running around slapping themselves on the backside in emulation of galloping horses. I said I was a confirmed Souperist and couldn't be involved.

I'm a great fan of James Joyce and the "write-whatever-comes-into-your-head" School of Literature, as you must have guessed. In Ulysses, "O, it's only Dedalus, whose mother is beastly dead", says Mulligan to his Aunt. Mother dead, see, my stream-of-consciousness gets there in the end.

There's lines I thought were in this poem that I can't find anywhere. Maybe they're in a different Betjeman poem or they're left out because they're too scary.

"Nurse and I sit quiet in the room
We too are half dead
And those thin hands upon the bedspread
Will never clutch again against their doom."

I found this exciting passage on the web, by "carl", and thought you would like to read it. Here it is more or less vebatim.

"In Death in Leamington we can observe components of a HOUSE schema with the upstairs bedroom , the stairs and the hall. The referents of the HOUSE schema initially appear as unrelated to a DEATH schema, but as the analysis will show, Betjeman uses the active HOUSE schema to implicitly refer to death and decay. The stucco is peeling signifies a house in ill repair, yellow Italianate arches activate a decrepit and stale SICKNESS or DECAY schema, and do you hear the plaster drop?, adds further significance to the overall sense of decline and decomposition. It is arguable that the correlation of a HOUSE or FURNISHINGS schema refreshes existing schemata, as it asks the reader to interpret otherwise non-associated elements of a death with features of a house. The initial effect of the active schema HOUSE and FURNISHINGS works on the level of representing objects in a way that may be seen as a narrative technique which creates the components of the projected text world. The cumulative effect of definite noun phrases, indicates that a schema containing their referents is currently active for the poetic persona, and that readers need to activate such a schema in order to interpret the text. Once the schema is activated, it will justify any further definite reference to its component elements. I would like to argue that this is the case with Death in Leamington, but the definite references contribute to a different schema activation that operates on an extra-linguistic level. The imagery associated with light in the poem creates interesting effects that relate to death. The only natural light referred to in the poem is the light of the evening star. Every other reference made towards light by Betjeman, is implicit, artificial, tainted or smothered in someway as in she let the blinds unroll, match to the mantle, 'covered the fire with coal', and turned down the gas in the hall. The initial reference of light i.e. the starlight, is filtered through the refracting qualities of the plate glass window creating an effect of a possible cataract or at least an obscure cognitive representation of something natural. What is significant here is the active LIGHT schema contributes meaning to the text in such a way as to reinforce the schema of DEATH. Consider the following: in this metaphor, birth is dawn, maturity is noon, old age is twilight, the moment of death is sunset, and the state of death is night. With reference to the EVENING and LIGHT schemas activated in Death in Leamington, by the light of the evening star, creates associations with a pallid, weak light and old age. In this context the LIGHT and EVENING schemas combine to enforce the age and the likelihood of death for the woman in the narrative; the implication appears to be a natural transition. The use of LIGHT and EVENING schemas in poetry to signify death are highly conventional."

I have nothing to add to this analysis. In fact, I'd subtract quite a lot from it. And I didn't make it up, if that's what you're thinking...
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/John_Betjeman/16958/comments

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• Death
• in
• Leamington
• John
• Betjeman
• poem

[Justinsupermagic]

spooky! as someone from leamington i love this poem...

[eccentrikchild]

Wow. I really like this. Very cool channel & videos! (:

[donpearson61]

I am very pleased that you posted this poem.

I shall defer expressing an opinion on Carl's comments until they are available in translation.

Are you working on it, please?

[XaveJamesGrey]

Glad I found your channel, this work and your comments on the side bar.