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Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
I am a white African. Contradiction in terms? I think not. Sometimes my blog will be serious; sometimes sad; sometimes irreverent; sometimes witty; always my truth simply written.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

KENSINGTON CASTLE - (Revised Version)


marry me kate
build me a castle samuel

stone
by rough-hewn stone
hopeful love materialised
on the slopes of Kensington koppie,
high above golden plains

where velvet signal grass
grew tall and crested
grey louries called

kweh-h-h
kweh-h-h
from the sweet thorn trees

and where, beneath the
diamond-studded Southern Cross,
the distant anger of the wild

sawed
chirped
roared
across its shrinking hunting grounds

thousands of miles
from Scotland

Rothesay Castle reproduced
and, with a ship’s canon,
offered a haven for a
nervous and homesick bride
beneath the African sun

marry me kate
build me a castle samuel

so he did


(All rights reserved)

Samuel Scott Wilson built a castle for his wife, Katie MacKirdie, who agreed to marry him on condition he build her a castle.  Construction was finished in 1911 in Kensington, Johannesburg, South Africa and the stone used for its one metre thick walls was taken from the very koppie on which the castle stands.  It is believed that the castle was modelled on Rothesay Castle in Scotland.
 

2 comments:

  1. Nice work..
    Thanks for the info on the castle :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sumit. Thanks for the visit. I am actually busy with quite an extensive edit of this so will probably re-post at some point. Someone whose opinion I really respect felt that it didnt move them as it could have...

    ReplyDelete