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Vernon Watkins

Welsh poet Vernon Watkins was born in Maesteg, a mining town in Glamorgan, on June 27, 1906, the second of three children, to William Watkins, bank manager, and Sarah. He entered Swansea Grammar School when he was

Heron, The

by Vernon Watkins (1906–67)

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16

The cloud-backed heron will not move:

He stares into the stream.

He stands unfaltering while the gulls

And oyster-catchers scream.

He does not hear, he cannot see

The great white horses of the sea,

But fixes eyes on stillness

Below their flying team.

How long will he remain, how long

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

What was Rainer Maria Rilke's birth name? And why did he change it?

Answer

Born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, Rilke changed his first name to Rainer because it was more masculine. In addition to having been born René Maria Rilke, after his elder sister who died a year before his birth, his mourning mother had dressed him in girl's clothes for the first five years of his life.

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