Tennyson had many words for it
Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein
Now that the stately home visiting season is upon us, my mind has turned to those most fairytale of stately dwellings, the castles. In Europe we’re blessed with a lot of them – this is IMHO one of the most beautiful – floating in its valley surrounded by mist and trees.
There is far too much poetry about castles for me to attempt to look at it, but I’d like to share some of my favourite lines from Tennyson’s The Princess: The Splendour falls on Castle Walls. The picture painted is so vivid.
The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
He understood that a castle isn’t alone, it has a location and, if the old time builders got it right, the building and setting enhance one another.
For the rest of the poem see The Poetry Foundation website.
e a m harris 