I couldn't leave the subject of Magdalen College without mentioning C.S. Lewis, who was Fellow of English Language and Literature for thirty years. Though I've read his Chronicles of Narnia, I hadn't come across any of his poetry until the other day. A path through the college grounds known as Addison's Walk borders a park, a meadow of fritillaries and the river Cherwell, and Lewis's poem "What the bird said early in the year" is inscribed on a memorial stone there. I find it a very moving piece, so it's here in full with the pictures I took on the path he must have trod many, many times.
'I heard in Addison's Walk a bird sing clear:
this year the summer will come true. This year, this year.
Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
this year, nor want of rain destroy the peas
This year time's nature will no more defeat you
nor all its promised moments in their passing cheat you
This time they will not lead you round and back
to Autumn one year older by the well-worn track
This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
we shall escape the circle and undo the spell
Often deceived yet open once again your heart
quick, quick, quick, quick, the gates are drawn apart.'
