10 OF THE BEST POETIC PLACES

To celebrate National Poetry Day, we take a literary tour around the UK to celebrate landscapes that have inspired writers

1 Sir Walter Scott THE LADY OF THE LAKE

FRINGED BY FORESTS OF OAK, PINE AND ALDER, LOCH KATRINE IN PERTHSHIRE MIRRORS THE BROODING SCOTTISH SKY. IT WAS ON THESE SHORES IN 1809 THAT SIR WALTER SCOTT CONJURED UP The Lady of the Lake, A TANTALISING TALE OF LOVE, WAR AND MAGIC. PUBLISHED THE FOLLOWING YEAR, THE POEM PROVED A SENSATION, SELLING 25,000 COPIES AND INSPIRING VICTORIANS TO VENTURE TO THE TROSSACHS TO SEE THE HIGHLAND GEM FOR THEMSELVES. TO RETRACE THE STEPS OF SCOTT’S KINGS AND CLANSMEN, BOOK A BOAT TRIP AND SAIL PAST MAJESTIC MOUNTAINS CLOAKED IN COPPER. Cruises from £13 per person; lochkatrine.com

“So wondrous wild, the whole might seem The scenery of a fairy dream”

“We are not wholly bad or good who live our lives under Milk Wood”

2 Dylan Thomas UNDER MILK WOOD

NOT STRICTLY A POEM BUT A POETIC PLAY, Under Milk Wood EXPLORES THE INNERMOST MUSINGS OF A CAST OF QUIRKY CHARACTERS – FROM SALTY SEADOG CAPTAIN CAT TO MUSIC MAN ORGAN MORGAN. SET IN THE FICTIONAL FISHING VILLAGE OF LLAREGGUB, THE HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY HARBOUR IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY NEW QUAY, WHERE THOMAS RESIDED IN THE 1940S. TAKE A TRIP TO THE WEST WALES TOWN AND FOLLOW THE DYLAN THOMAS TRAIL. OR MAKE A BEELINE FOR THE BLACK LION, THE POET’S PREFERRED PUB – RUMOUR HAS IT HE NEVER QUITE CLEARED HIS BAR TAB… newquay-westwales.co.uk

3 Vita Sackville-west SISSINGHURST

WHEN SACKVILLE-WEST MOVED TO SPRAWLING SISSINGHURST, IT WAS SO SHABBY THAT SHE SLEPT IN THE ELIZABETHAN TOWER WHERE BIRDS SWOOPED THROUGH THE WINDOWS ABOVE HER HEAD. THE TURRET SOON BECAME HER STUDY, WHERE SHE PENNED POETRY INSPIRED BY THE RAMSHACKLE GROUNDS AND GARDENS. WRITTEN IN 1932, Sissinghurst CONSIDERS THE HOLD NATURE HAS OVER THE CASTLE: “[CRAWLING] WITH IVIED FINGERS OVER ROSY WALLS, SEARCHING THE CREVICES”. VITA AND HER HUSBAND TRANSFORMED THE ESTATE WITH SENSITIVE PLANTING THAT REFLECTED HER ROMANTIC WRITING. SEE IT NOW WHEN ITS SURROUNDS ARE ABLAZE WITH FIERY ORANGES AND GOLDEN YELLOWS. nationaltrust.org.uk/sissinghurst-castle-garden

4 Simon Armitage POEMS IN THE AIR

IN NORTHUMBERLAND NATIONAL PARK, STANZAS SKULK IN SECRET SPACES. INSTEAD OF PUTTING PEN TO PAPER, ARMITAGE CREATED Poems in the Air, A SERIES OF SONNETS ONLY ACCESSIBLE BY PHONE OR TABLET IN THE SIX PLACES THAT INSPIRED THEM. DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF OUR POET LAUREATE AND WHEN YOU REACH THE TUMBLEDOWN COTTAGE OVERLOOKING WARKS BURN, THE MEDIEVAL RUINS AT OLD MIDDLETON AND THE PROPOSAL STONE AT SIMONSIDE, YOU’LL BE ABLE TO TUNE INTO A ROUSING RECITAL FROM THE LYRICIST HIMSELF. poemsintheair.co.uk

5 Thomas Hardy THE SHADOW ON THE STONE

BUILT UPON ROMAN RUINS, MAX GATE IN DORSET IS AN AUSTERE ABODE WITH A STORY TO TELL. HOME TO HARDY BETWEEN 1885 AND 1928, IT WAS WITHIN THESE RED-BRICK WALLS THAT HE WROTE Tess of the d’urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge AND MUCH OF HIS POETRY. ONE OF THE MANY WORKS WRITTEN IN THE WAKE OF HIS WIFE EMMA’S DEATH, The Shadow on the Stone WAS INSPIRED BY THE EERIE UNEARTHING OF AN ANCIENT BURIAL SITE IN THE GARDEN. IN THE POEM, HARDY SENSES THE SPECTRE OF HIS BELOVED BEHIND HIM BUT RESISTS TURNING TO FIND IT A FIGMENT OF HIS IMAGINATION. VISIT THIS NATIONAL TRUST AREA TO DISCOVER IF GHOSTS STILL LINGER BETWEEN THE TREES. nationaltrust.org.uk/max-gate

6 William Wordsworth LINES WRITTEN A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY

WORDSWORTH WAS WANDERING IN THE WELSH BORDERS WHEN HE COMPOSED Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. ALTHOUGH THE RAMBLING RUINS AREN’T REFERENCED DIRECTLY, IT WAS HIS RETURN THERE AFTER FIVE YEARS THAT CAUSED WORDSWORTH TO RUMINATE ON HIS PAST AND PRESENT SELF AND THE ENDURING BEAUTY OF NATURE. A LATE ADDITION TO Lyrical Ballads (THE POEM WAS RUSHED TO THE PRINTERS FOR INCLUSION), THE COLLECTION WENT ON TO SIGNAL THE START OF THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT IN LITERATURE. VISIT THE MONMOUTHSHIRE MONASTERY TO MARVEL AT THIS SYMBOL OF THE SUBLIME. cadw.gov.wales

“Anemone cloud over Dart, tracking for a point of entry.

A walk is not a walk without a river”

7 Elizabeth-jane Burnett SWIMS

MORE THAN JUST FINE WORDS ON A PAGE, POETRY CAN HAVE THE POWER TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE. IN HER INAUGURAL ANTHOLOGY Swims, BURNETT CREATED ONE LONG POEM CHARTING 12 WILD DIPS – EACH QUESTIONING HOW WE CAN HELP PROMPT ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION. PLUNGING INTO PONDS, RIVERS AND LAKES IN PLACES FROM SURREY TO SNOWDONIA, Swims STARTS AND ENDS IN DEVON, WHERE THE POET GREW UP. IN HER ODE TO THE RIVER DART, BURNETT DESCRIBES THE PLEASURE OF SWIMMING SURROUNDED BY ‘WILDNESS’ – MISTS, MOSS, BUZZARDS, BUTTERCUPS. FOR MORE MUSINGS ON THE WONDERS OF WATER, BURNETT’S NEW COLLECTION, Of Sea, IS OUT NOW (PENNED IN THE MARGINS, £9.99).

8 William Butler Yeats UNDER BEN BULBEN

SHROUDED IN MIST AND MYTH, ANCIENT BEN BULBEN SQUATS ON THE SLIGO SKYLINE. THE SETTING OF SEVERAL IRISH LEGENDS, THIS FLAT-TOPPED MOUNTAIN LOOMED LARGE IN MANY OF YEATS’S POEMS, THOUGH MOST MEMORABLY IN THE EPONYMOUS Under Ben Bulben. DRAFTED IN 1938, FIVE MONTHS BEFORE HIS DEATH, YEATS MUSES ON MORTALITY – ENVISAGING HIS FINAL RESTING PLACE, BURIED UNDER ‘BARE BEN BULBEN’S HEAD’. RATHER THAN FEAR HIS END, HE CONTEMPLATES LIVING ON IN THE LAND OF HIS ANCESTORS. WALK THE NINE-MILE BEN BULBEN LOOP TRAIL, WHICH PASSES THE POET’S GRAVE AT DRUMCLIFFE CEMETERY. discoverireland.ie/sligo/benbulben

“Worth their salt, England’s white cliffs; a glittering breastplate Caesar saw from his ship; the sea’s gift to the land”

9 Carol Ann Duffy WHITE CLIFFS

CELEBRATED IN SONG AND STORY FOR CENTURIES, THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER ARE ONE OF ENGLAND’S MOST ICONIC AND IMPOSING LANDMARKS. JUST OVER A DECADE AGO, THE NATIONAL TRUST COMMISSIONED THE THEN-POET LAUREATE CAROL ANN DUFFY TO WRITE THE POEM White Cliffs TO COMMEMORATE A PUBLIC APPEAL TO BUY BACK ONE OF THE LAST STRETCHES STILL PRIVATELY OWNED. IN IT, SHE SALUTES THE ‘SEA’S GIFT TO THE LAND… SOMETHING FAIR AND STRONG IMPLIED IN CHALK’. FOR THE MOST VERTIGINOUS VIEWS OF THE CHALKY CLIFF FACES, AMBLE ALONG THE COASTAL PATH TOWARDS SOUTH FORELAND LIGHTHOUSE. ON ROUTE, YOU MIGHT NOT SPOT ANY BLUEBIRDS, BUT YOU MAY SEE SWALLOWS SOARING SOUTH FOR WINTER. nationaltrust.org.uk/the-white-cliffs-of-dover

10 John Keats TO AUTUMN

IN SEPTEMBER 1819, AUTUMN TURNED THE TREETOPS AUBURN AND THE SUN CAST ITS GOLDEN GLOW ACROSS THE LAND. IT WAS THIS SEASONAL SPECTACLE THAT FIRED UP THE IMAGINATION OF KEATS AS HE STROLLED ALONG THE BANKS OF THE RIVER ITCHEN NEAR WINCHESTER. HIS ODE To Autumn, ONE OF THE MOST ANTHOLOGISED LYRICS IN LITERATURE, PONDERS THE POWER OF NATURE AND THE INESCAPABLE PASSING OF TIME. TO EXPERIENCE THE MISTS AND MELLOW FRUITFULNESS YOURSELF, FOLLOW KEATS’S DAILY WINCHESTER WALK, WHICH WINDS INTO THE COUNTRYSIDE THAT SPARKED THE POEM. visitwinchester.co.uk/listing/keats-trail