Tintern Abbey: A ghost of the shape it once had

'A ghost of the shape it once had', a misquote from Ronald Johnson's long-form poem, The Book of the Green Man; reflections on travels around Britain in 1962, passing by Tintern on the way: ‘We have forgotten, now, the original inspiration of Tintern Abbey.’

‘We began today

to trace the course

of the Wye

into “Wild

Wales,” Chepstow to Plynimmon’ 

‘… up Wyndcliffe, wooded with huge oaks’

‘Then descended

afoot,

fields bounded with hedge,

each bud & thorn

pendant with

water,

to Tintern –

not one tufted column, no wall

a mass of moving foliage. Only – the Window.

Its seven delicate shafts

the frame for a more ephemeral world

than glass:

the passing clouds,

the passing, voluminous, green clouds –

in hilly

horizon.

Then, leaving the river, over the hill, to St. Briavels.’

The Book of the Green Man available from Uniform Books.