Ardingly Elegy
Poem written after judging in an enjoyable and impressive
contest in English speaking by young students from all
over the world, in early spring at Ardingly College.
ARDINGLY ELEGY
Note: Ardingly is pronounced to rhyme with: 'Sky', 'fly' or 'goodbye'.
The clock tower tolls the passing of the day
The bleating flock wends home under darkening sky
The Judges homeward plod their weary way
And leave the world in peace at Ardingly
Far from the madding contestants' noble strife
Their preferences no longer put asunder
Reworking appraisals that should have given life
The ghosts of jurists sit in shadowed UNDER*
Across the world the living spirits go
To lands deprived of custard on their pie
Gone from the halls up under and below
May they again return to Ardingly
Now faithful Laura's bright young team has gone
Far from the English contest's hue and cry
When spring once more brings us a brighter dawn
May she at heart return to Ardingly
And now the shepherd of this human flock
To cruel Heathcliff's windy moors must fly
But once again when frosty sheen still paints the field
And yet the buds burst green on sylvan high
May he also returned to Ardingly.
Apologies to Thomas Gray
The UNDER is the perversely named assembly hall-come-theatre
located upstairs at Ardingly College, Sussex, England.
