November

Thomas Hood

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day -
No sky - no earthly view -
No distance looking blue -
No road - no street - no 't'other side the way' -
No end to any Row -
No indications where the Crescents go -
No top to any steeple -
No recognitions of familiar people -
No courtesies for showing 'em -
No knowing 'em -
No travelling at all - no locomotion,
No inkling of the way - no notion -
'No go' - by land or ocean -
No mail - no post -
No news from any foreign coast -
No Park - no Ring - no afternoon gentility -
No company - no nobility -
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, -
November!



Thomas Hood was born, died and buried in London - his grave is in the Kensal Green Cemetery that features in Chesterton's poem, 'The Rolling English Road'. At the time Hood wrote 'November' London suffered from periodic smogs caused by air pollution that blackened the buildings, caused many premature deaths and rendered visibility to that of a 'pea soup'. In 1843, the year before Hood published the poem, a Parliamentary Select Comittee set in motion the long journey that would culminate in the Clean Air Act of 1956. This ended London's smogs by enforcing smokeless zones.