This poem about the British coast will make you want to build a sand castle right now
What is it about the British coastline that makes us so misty-eyed and poetic?
To find out, the National Trust has teamed up with a world-renowned wordsmith to bring us a lovely little poem about the British seaside.
It called on the British public to share their favourite things about our pleasant land's coastline, and used more than 11,500 submissions under the hashtag #lovethecoast to inspire the poem, which was written by Dr John Cooper Clarke.
Seventeen of the contributors were invited to read out lines of the poem, while Dr John began and ended the ditty.
See the whole poem here. (Warning: It may make you go all bleary eyed and nostalgic for sand castles.)
Here's the poem in full:
Nation's Ode to the Coast, by Dr John Cooper Clarke
A big fat sky and a thousand shrieks
The tide arrives and the timber creaks
A world away from the working week
Ou est la vie nautique?
That's where the sea comes in...
Dishevelled shells and shovelled sands, Architecture all unplanned
A spade 'n' bucket wonderland
A golden space, a Frisbee and
The kids and dogs can run and run
And not run in to anyone
Way out! Real gone!
That's where the sea comes in...
Impervious to human speech, idle time and tidal reach
Some memories you can't impeach
That's where the sea comes in
A nice cuppa splosh and a round of toast
A cursory glance at the morning post
A pointless walk along the coast
That's what floats my boat the most
That's where the sea comes in...
Now, voyager – once resigned
Go forth to seek and find
The hazy days you left behind
Right there in the back of your mind
Where lucid dreams begin
With rolling dunes and rattling shale
The shoreline then a swollen sail
Picked out by a shimmering halo
That's where the sea comes in...
Could this be luck by chance?
Eternity in a second glance
A universe beyond romance
That's where the sea comes in...
Yeah, that's where the sea comes in...
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