Anthology 36: The Way Through The Woods

This week's poem follows on from last week's (The Road Not Taken) and talks of a road even less taken.

The Way Through The Woods by Rudyard Kipling

They shut the road through the woods

Seventy years ago.

Weather and rain have undone it again,

And now you would never know

There was once a road through the woods

Before they planted the trees.

It is underneath the coppice and heath

And the thin anemones.

Only the keeper sees

That, where the ring-dove broods,

And the badgers roll at ease,

There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods

Of a summer evening late,

When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools

Where the otter whistles his mate,

(They fear not men in the woods,

Because they see so few.)

You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,

And the swish of a skirt in the dew,

Steadily cantering through

The misty solitudes,

As though they perfectly knew

The old lost road through the woods ...

But there is no road through the woods.

Andrew

If...

One of my favourite poems of all time is If by Rudyard Kipling - which is also the nation's favourite at least according to a poll in 1996. In 1998, a recording of it by Des Lynam was used by the BBC as part of their World Cup coverage of that year.

While this may not be the best reading ot the poem, I've always loved the setting of it with Faure's Pavane, which was the BBC's theme tune for the World Cup that year. On top of that, this version features great graphics by George Horne. 

As is customary, I now instruct you to enjoy:

Typography: IF by Rudyard Kipling from George Horne on Vimeo.

Andrew