Through Fractured Light
by Sarah Benjamin
Blocks of water colour
Fracture my Northern fells
In a geometry of light
And memory
Paintings in a gallery[2]
Call me
Back to the high valleys
Where we hounds chased
Fellow hares
Across rock after
Ankle breaking rock
Sighting a bright sash
Flash
In the washed-out air
We leapt for days
Without care
Now I sign over
My birth right
So others might
Walk free
Through this fractured light
Footnotes:
1.(see https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/lake-district/the-langdales/the-history-of-langdale)
2. The poem references the Modernist style of landscape painting of the 1930s which represents the fells in blocks of water colour (see works of this period by William Heaton Cooper R.I. at https: //www.heatoncooper.co.uk /collections/langdale-prints). He invented the game of Hound and Hares with fellow Trinity (College, Cambridge) students, which later became known as the Trevelyan Hunt. Human hares with red sashes would be pursued by human hounds for days across the Lake District fells, participants walking and running and camping rough. The hunt continues to this day.
George Macaulay Trevelyan spent youthful summers exploring the surrounding fells of the Langdale Valley in the English Lake District. Later, he wrote many of his famous history books at Robin Ghyll, a local cottage. He campaigned for the preservation of the valley for the enjoyment of future generations. He went on to donate Robin Ghyll, together with other farms and land he purchased with money inherited from his father, to the National Trust [1]