Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday, 18 February 2026

Ash Wednesday and T.S.Eliot


Today being Ash Wednesday seems a very good occasion on which to share an article from the Daily Telegraph by Christopher Howse. In it he writes about T.S. Eliot’s set of six poems, written in 1927 and published as “Ash Wednesday” in 1930. It is often seen as Eliot’s “conversion” piece, written when he became an Anglo-Catholic. As the article points out many critics in 1930 missed many of the liturgical allusions in the text, let alone how many would miss them today, which is a depressing commentary on the state of our society.

The text of the poem can be found online, and there are a number of online videos about it. 


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For those without Telegraph subscriptions I found a page with a copy of T S Eliot's Ash Wednesday poem:

https://englishverse.com/poems/ash_wednesday

It's rather too enigmatic and baffling for my taste, and I'm ashamed to say I prefer his humorous poem Macavity:

https://englishverse.com/poems/macavity_the_mystery_cat

John (Ramsden) [ jrq@gmx.com ]

22 February 2026 at 19:26

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