Celebrating the Power of Poetry!

Throughout Terms 3 and 4, Year 7 and Year 8 students have embarked on a journey into the world of poetry, exploring the power of nature, imagination, and change. Through reading and writing, students have discovered poetry’s unique ability to capture emotions, transport readers to different places, and connect deeply with our shared experiences. The unit has encouraged students to think creatively, challenging them to express their thoughts in a way that is both personal and universal.

Poetry offers a space for young writers to experiment with language, rhythm, and imagery. The English Department are thrilled to share a poem from one of our talented young poets, Henry Grieve, whose poem, Aquila, was submitted to the Red Room Poetry competition!

Aquila

Wind,

Wing,

Whim.

A whistle, as the howling wind is even surpassed in glory, in majesty;

A screech; for those flamboyant colours are mere display.

I sever the strand that is the gap in my lieu and my growing earthly connection

And arc heavenwards prey-in-talon to beseech the world asong.

Dissonant, unheard, unanswered.

Of those humans below: “Stare; does horror mingle with the awe?

I say let them both mingle with the guilt of hands irreproachable, but not blameless in the least.”

Of my own lofty soul and fluid form, grace to the skies, bane of birds, ethereal eye, noble observer:

“Talons of ice and fire and steel, yet none, nor, neither – talons sink down, the net to the fish of the sky.”

Incomparable. Discordant.

My raw thoughts coalesce and acclimate; they ebb and they wax as the rhythm of the eastern wave,

Atavistic, consummate, eroding, unhindered, that body of power unimpeded by self.

I conclude, but do not, that humanity lacks, it lacks in that pow’r which I have in full:

The eagle’s eye, the far-sighted touch, that broad span of mind from a span broad in view.

Flight.

Ms Doutreband
Master Assisting English (Academic Enrichment)