A dash of Worcester!
The clocked cathedral clangs the hour
While on the pitch the youthful flower
Of Worcestershire, this shrine of cricket,
They bat, they bowl, they stump the wicket;
And nearby here, serene and silver,
There courses fair Sabrina’s river.
Sweet themes by Elgar in my mind,
Beneath my Panama, will find
Some echoes of a skylark’s trills
A-wing above the Malvern Hills,
The sporting place of ram and wedder.
And in my sandwich, spicy Cheddar
Embellished with a dash – of course –
Of Lea and Perrins’ Worcester Sauce!
When winter’s windy Rugby scrimmage
Bereaves my mind of this soft image
By means of howlings harsh and glottal,
‘Tis then I thank thee, little bottle;
Anew the season will begin
When sumer is icumen in…
Author notes
The greatest summer sport in the world: CRICKET
For transatlantic readers, "Worcester" and "Worcestershire" are pronounced "Wooster" and "Woostersher". For anyone who does not come from a cricket-playing nation, you have my sympathy but that is all, for alas I have no time for explanations!
"Sumer is icumen in" is the title of a 13th Century song - I think the first documented "round" in English. The title means "Summer has arrived".
photo credit: http://conference.whub.org.uk/home/conf-worcs/wcc-cw-cricket.jpg
In a list
A contest entry
- Antique Culinary Bottles -- Victorian Parlor Game 11 by ea.
600 points, ended July 29, 2007, 11 entries
Honorable winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Favorite Sport by slick99.
450 points, ended August 4, 6 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 23 of 23
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thanks alot for entering my contest and good luck!!!! -slick99
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It's a pleasure to be here, with just about the only poem I have with a sporting reference.
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Mairi
I've seen Wurstershire Sauce in all the kitchens I've worked, but have never developed a taste for the stuff.
It seems a lot of money for the little bit you get.
The poem, I loved. I've never seen a cricket game either
but imagine it is very fun to watch and more to play.
Glad to see you placed in this, it is well written, and the author's notes, which I always look froward to, were a delight in themselves.
John-USA
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It is the English equivalent of zen meditation.
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Sounds like you, is BY you!
a happy moment, coming to enjoy your poetry, Scotland's lass of merit! 
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I'm glad you found this one.
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Brilliant, this piece has a delectable motion to it with perfect meter. The flow is liquid smooth even with the “sticky wicket”. (excuse me I couldn’t help myself.) Thank you for your notes regarding the "Sumer is icumen in", I learned something.
Love,
Amera ♥
This deserved gold. We really must teach the people on this site what real poetry is.
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It's kind of you to say it deserved the gold, Amera, but the winning poem was really outstanding - I loved it and have a great deal of respect for the writer.
By the way, I sometimes think I am permanently on a sticky wicket!
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this is great-
so fun
m
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Yes, I had fun putting it together.
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Love it!! Very saucy
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Thank you so much.
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Lovely
This is quite something...
Lovely piece of poetry with such a terrific theme... Cricket... a great sport....
You captured quite a lot here.
Well done
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Thanks, butterfly. I think it really came together when I found that picture of the guy in the Panama hat! Poems sometimes seem to write themselves.
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oo yes, I don't know if the Nicholas Cage remake of the Wicker Man has "Sumer is icumen in" but I knew of it from Richard Thompson's album 1000 Years of Popular music before I saw the original WM. Love that song!
A great piece here, very lively and humorous. Thank you.
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I think the first time I heard it was during an episode of the old black & white TV series "Robin Hood". Anyhow, it seemed to lend itself to the last, rather uneven couplet for cominc effect. Many thanks - your contests are helping me keep my eye in.
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I really like this little poem you have here. It's very bubbly and joyful. I'm very very happy to see you've celebrated cricket here. It's wonderful and the food just makes it better and that Worcester sauce-- that really is something good!
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What a joy to get a visit from someone with the West Indies badge as an avatar! Thanks a lot for the comments and the applause. {raising my bat to the pavillion}
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Oh I love my boys no matter what. hee hee hee
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I used to love watching Garfield Sobers batting - that's quite some time back.
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yes that was before my time as well. Lol. Those were great times
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Marvelous
This is just delightfully witty. Your rhyming of scrimmage and image was brilliant, and this poem was dashed with with just the right amount of saucy Worchester humor. I was told that Worchester sauce got its name in the Southern states, when a customer tried this new concoction in a bottle, and asked the waitress, 'What's this here sauce? Anyway, your poems are always such a refreshing pleasure to read, and this was certainly no exception. I'd love to see you write an entire poem on cricket with all its curious terminolgy like 'out with a duck' and such. Best of luck in the contest with this wonderful poem.
David Michaels
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That's "out FOR a duck" David and Worcester without an H too. Hey, but I am glad you like this one. You never know, I might try writing a poem about cricket. I probably couldn't equal Sir Henry Newbolt's famous "Vitai Lampada" http://www.wargames.co.uk/Poems/lampada.htm but I could probably manage a parody.
Oh, and the waitress's answer to the Southern Gentleman was obivously "Lea and Perrins', sir"!
Marie
PS. I thought my rhyme of "glottal" and "bottle" was better!
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