Blog

31st January, 2025

Friday Poem – ‘Sir John Soane imagines the Ruins of His yet-to-be-built Building’ by Robert Seatter

Photo depicting the ruined wall and empty window of a crumbling building

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Sir John Soane imagines the Ruins of His yet-to-be-built Building’ by Robert Seatter from his collection The House of Everything.

Sir John Soane imagines the Ruins of His yet-to-be-built Building
Begin with the end:
the ruins, in the picturesque pile
with only time's crenellations
left now in silhouette,
and every last window open
into air. Begin with the trees, 
the roots, that slow creep
of moss – they were always there
at the corner of your eye, 
and this clearing in the wood
only ever temporary. Begin
with the list of irksome lost things,
the accidents of memoiry
that must somehow be purposeful,
and love's strange collisions
that wake you in the night:
all the things that survive.