John Betjeman Quotes

Sir John Betjeman was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack". He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972 until his death.

He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television. Wikipedia  

✵ 28. August 1906 – 19. May 1984   •   Other names Sir John Betjeman

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John Betjeman
John Betjeman: 30   quotes 4   likes

Famous John Betjeman Quotes

“And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.”

Source: Selected Poems

“It was through looking at churches that I came to believe in the reason churches were built.”

The Best of Betjeman, John Guest, Penguin Modern Classics, 1985. Written in 1948. (Blisland)

“One mark of good verse is surprise.”

Radio Talk. BBC Radio 4 (2 August 1978)

John Betjeman Quotes

“We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I'm engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.”

"A Subaltern's Love-song" line 43.
Poetry

“Hymns are the poetry of the people.”

Radio Talk: BBC Radio (4 July 1975)

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

"In Ireland with Emily" from New Bats in Old Belfries.
Poetry

“He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer
As he gazed at the London skies
Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains
Or was it his bees-winged eyes?”

"The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel" line 1, from Continual Dew.
Poetry

“Yes, I haven't had enough sex.”

In an interview for the television documentary Time With Betjeman (February 1983), having been asked whether he had any regrets.
As quoted in: Ned Sherrin, Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations http://books.google.gr/books?id=5q4XBa5jsy8C&dq=, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 286

“It's strange that those we miss the most
Are those we take for granted.”

"The Hon. Sec." line 39, from High and Low (1966).
Poetry

“I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner;
I have a Slimline brief-case and I use the firm's Cortina.”

"Executive" line 1, from A Nip in the Air (1974).
Poetry

“But I'm dying now and done for,
What on earth was all the fun for?
I am ill and old and terrified and tight.”

"Sun and Fun — Song of a Night-club Proprietress", from A Few Late Chrysanthemums.
Poetry

“Ghastly Good Taste, or a Depressing Story of the Rise and Fall of English Architecture.”

Title and sub-title of book (1933)

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