Wartime Poem | The Map by James Walker

'The Map' by James Walker

How tiny England is this map will show,
And how she is the bus of many seas
That shaped her landscape to its subtleties.

How few her rivers are, her hills how low.

This map will tell you faintly of her towns
Pinpoint for London, Thames a thread of hair,
But will not tell of dewponds on the downs.

Or how the leaves of Warwick green the air.

This map will tell you nothing of the way
The coultish April skips cross her skies.

Nor how in autumn nights the curlew cries,
Or thrush or Blackbird harmonise in May.

These such things consult that wiser chart,
Engraved upon the exiled English heart.

James Walker (RAF)

Published in the Observer in 1943