I saw a broken town

 

I saw a broken town beside the grey March sea,
Spray flung in the air and no larks singing,
And houses lurching, twisted where the chestnut trees
Stand ripped and stark; the fierce wind bringing
The choking dust in clouds along deserted streets,
Shaking the gaping rooms, the jagged raw-white stone.
Seeking for what in this quiet, stricken town? It beats
About each fallen wall, each beam, leaving no livid
aching place alone.

March 1941, after the bombing of Wallasey

Mabel Esther Allan

Mabel Esther Allan wrote a children's book called 'Time to go Back' about a girl transported into the past of the Second World War in Wallasey. The above poem forms part of that story. The author's note to the book says that she also witnessed Liverpool in flames in May 1941.

If anyone knows any more about the author's connection with Wallasey, please contact me.

You can read more about her here.

Links to pages about how the war affected Merseyside.

• Liverpool blitz timeline.
• The Blitz on Merseyside

 

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