Dancing Dust |
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Poems by Mollie Caird (1922-2000) |
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Cinderella spire |
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Ask all our clever brain-washed people Which is their favourite Oxford steeple: It would occur to none of them To sing the praise of Wesley Mem. Our snobbish, blank and blinkered eyes Know what to like, what to despise; St. Michael's Street is not a view That purists would applaud as U, — But U and non-U can go hang For Lim Chan-Hong from far Panang. Chan-Hong paints beauty thin and tall Attenuated up the wall: Flamingoes' stilt-legged, snake-necked grace, High palm trees brushing outer space, — So naturally his taste inclines To elastic neo-gothic lines. His brilliant oriental eye More vaunted buildings passes by And chooses rather to admire This, Oxford's Cinderella spire, And makes it, with his subtle art, A shape of joy to wring the heart. And so it comes into my mind (An artist of much humbler kind) To take my cue from Lim Chan-Hong And celebrate Wes. Mem. in song. In an Oxford exhibition of the work of the Malaysian artist Lim Chan-Hong the only Oxford scene was of Wesley Memorial Church seen from Cornmarket along St. Michael's Street. Oxford Times, 14 October 1966 |