We’ve Cut The Trees

We’ve cut the trees, we’ve stopped all rivers flowing,
We’ve killed the whales, and prevented flowers growing,
We’ve silenced birdsong, so with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

No albatross to circle soaring overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message “Nature’s Dead”
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the dead doves
We have eternal silence, nothings moves.

Where is the North, the South, the East and West?
The passing seasons, where is Nature’s best?
The tiger, forests, the hump-backs’ song?
We thought that it would last forever, we were wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W H Auden, plagiarised by Simon Maclaren.
(And thanks to Four Weddings and a Funeral)

1996
(Published on 38 London bus)