4a. The Ionic Temple
Saturday 18 March
NARRATOR:
I’m Andrew Motion and this is my poem about ‘The Ionic Temple at Chiswick House’.
SIR ANDREW MOTION:
Once upon a time it was the thimble a seamstress might wear to work for the big Classical Gods.
For us it more nearly resembles the domed nose
of a cruise missile easing upwards from its silo.
But enough of that.
When we step inside it fits so snugly I might as well have discovered a way
of living in your head as you now live in mine.
The skylight in the centre above us is a fontanel yet to close.
We can stare straight back at the sun.

