Wentworth Place

(Leaf 12) – Looking Back

 

This poem is connected to the one featured in Leaf 11. It recalls a visit I made to Wentworth Place in Hampstead, now known as Keats House – where the poet lived from 1818 to 1820, and where he wrote many of his most well-known poems. Inspired by a thought I had at the time of visiting, I wrote this poem on the back of an old postcard of Wentworth Place (which I dated, 16 June 2001). I most recently revisited Keats House in 2023, when the magnolias in Hampstead were all in full bloom.

 

 

WENTWORTH PLACE

 

Listening to the summer rain

drumming on the house,

like an old shoe box,

empty and with bowed sides.

Revisiting Keats House in 2023

 

Photographs by Tim Chamberlain.