Third Form Visit to Highgate Cemetery
On the final Friday before half term, the Third Form accompanied the English Department to Highgate Cemetery to learn about its dark Victorian history. The aim was inspiration; having studied the Gothic extensively this year, the sprawling graveyard offered the perfect opportunity for the Muse to strike. Wild garlic infused the air as the boys were regaled with rumours of the Highgate Vampire - excellent fodder for their personal writing later on in the day.
For those who have not visited, the cemetery is well worth a trip. As you climb the steps into the tangled paths, the ornamental graves loom around you and weather-beaten crypts peek from beneath the tides of ferns which blanket the floor. Vivid, lustrous greens starkly contrast the enduring grey of the memorials; a physical representation of the coexisting states of life and death. The cemetery is home to an incredible cast, including Michael Faraday, George Michael, Karl Marx and (for the Pre-Raphaelite fans amongst us), Lizzie Siddal, the model for Millais' famous painting.
After packed lunches, which the teachers paired with some fine lunchtime coffee from the artisan van parked outside, adults and children alike sat in leafy glens to pen their reflections. A couple of included below; please do enjoy.
George Michael, Michael Faraday
Writes Ms. Kotsuba
Upside down torches, upside down days
Upside down cannons, upside down fates
Decapitated obelisks, dilapidated graves
Half-draped urns, half-hunted ascents.
Half-lit catacombs, half-filled crypts
Half-chained mausoleums, half-broken gates
Half-path, dividing life and death, half-steps
To George Michael, to Michael Faraday.
Here the interred - the half poor, the half-taught:
Philanthropists, writers, and poets, what not;
Half-believers, half-conformers - a broad church.
Among the whispers, among the murmurs
Still linger, still prevail
Half-healed sorrows, half-recovered woes.
