East Anglia is not the only place in the UK where salt marshland can be found, but it is probably the most extensive. From the northern banks of the Thames Estuary along the eastern coasts of Essex, Suffolk and the greater part of Norfolk, with a few breaks of higher ground, these low lying, virtually at sea level, tracts of marsh extend sometimes several miles inland. Then again in the fen country around The Wash there is more of the same. The area has attracted artists since landscape painting came into vogue, but in the main it is not the land but the skies that they come to paint.

This marshland is lonely country, mainly the province of wildfowl. There are few trees; the vegetation consisting mainly of reeds and grasses with an edible marginal, samphire, growing closer to the sea.

The poem is free form relying for its poesy on anything and everything except for tail end rhyme. This confusion of devices reflects the confusion of the tidal creeks that insinuate themselves around the marshlands.

You need to login or register to write reviews. It's quick! We only ask four questions to new members.