Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, POST OFFICE ETCHINGS: 12. HEAD-POSTMASTER, by AUSTIN PHILIPS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

POST OFFICE ETCHINGS: 12. HEAD-POSTMASTER, by                    
First Line: Into the early air
Last Line: Ahead, new life, new light, enlargement ... Liberty!
Subject(s): Postal Service; Postmen; Post Office; Mail; Mailmen


INTO the early air,
So cutting, cruel, chill,
I haste. Down the dank hill
I make my way. Repair
Towards that square, stolid, stone-faced building, (where,
Youngest Head-postmaster on English soil,
I rule the wretched roast, and daily toil
At tedious tasks, in spiritual subjection),
About to make enforced, and two a.m., inspection.

I reach the side-door. Stay,
Shivering, a space. Then hear
A mail-van drawing near.
See driver stop, survey
Me cautiously, and next descend ... to lay
Sacks in the outer office-lobby, (he
Opens and locks this with his personal key),
Climb to his seat, start for the 'Faithful City',
And disappear into the autumn night's opacity.

I enter now. Pass through
The sorting-hall, to seek
My sanctum. Retch at reek,
Rising as from fetid stew:
Stale, oft-boiled wax, the odious residue
Of last night's human sweat, blended with stink
Of train-borne boxes of fruit, upon the brink
Of rotting. Swift escaping from such foul
Environment, I sit sad-hearted, sick of soul.

Accounts, 'return', report!
I toil at these till four
Strikes, and the Staff comes. Hour
After hour they stand and sort,
What time I encourage, criticise, exhort.
Seven! Each postman rises from swing seat.
One of them trudges towards me, splay of feet.
"A letter for you, sir!" he smiles. At that
He hands me cover. It comes, I see, from A. P. Watt.

Watt! (Who is doyen of all
Literary Agents!) I
Open it eagerly,
With anxious eyes which fall
On news most marvellous, most magical.
This tells me that Cornhill has bought a tale.
Likewise the Strand, which pays at heightened scale.
Smith Elder take my book. Thrilled through, I see,
Ahead, new life, new light, enlargement ... Liberty!





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