Skip to content

Topography is one of my chief themes in my poetry...about the country, the suburbs and the seaside...then there comes love...and increasingly, the fear of death.

— John Betjeman Radio Talk. BBC Third Programme (1949)

Another quote →

More quotes by John Betjeman

History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side.

Stony seaboard, far and foreign,
Stony hills poured over space,
Stony outcrop of the Burren,
Stones in every fertile place.

New Bats in Old Belfries (1945)

Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music.

Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Continual Dew (1937)

Safe were those evenings of the pre-war world
When firelight shone on green linoleum,
I heard the church bells hollowing out the sky,
Deep beyond deep, like never-ending stars.

Summoned by Bells (1960)

All John Betjeman quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Betjeman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.