Crossing the Frontier

Crossing the frontier they were stopped in time,

Told, quite politely, they would have to wait:

Passports in order, nothing to declare

And surely holding hands was not a crime

Until they saw how, ranged across the gate,

All their most formidable friends were there.

Wearing his conscience like a crucifix,

Her father, rampant, nursed the Family Shame;

And, armed wlth their old-fashioned dinner-gong,

His aunt, who even when they both were six,

Had just to glance towards a childish game

To make them feel that they were doing wrong.

And both their mothers, simply weeping floods,

Her head-mistress, his boss, the parish priest,

And the bank manager who cashed their cheques;

The man who sold him his first rubber-goods;

Dog Fido, from whose love-life, shameless beast,

She first observed the basic facts of sex.

They looked as though they had stood there for hours;

For years; perhaps for ever. In the trees

Two furtive birds stopped courting and flew off;

While in the grass beside the road the flowers

Kept up their guilty traffic with the bees.

Nobody stirred. Nobody risked a cough.

Nobody spoke. The minutes ticked away;

The dog scratched idly. Then, as parson bent

And whispered to a guard who hurried in,

The customs-house loudspeakers with a bray

Of raucous and triumphant argument

Broke out the wedding march from Lohengrin.

He switched the engine off: “We must turn back.”

She heard his voice break, though he had to shout

Against a din that made their senses reel,

And felt his hand, so tense in hers, go slack.

But suddenly she laughed and said: “Get out!

Change seatsl Be quickl” and slid behind the wheel.

And drove the car straight at them with a harsh,

Dry crunch that showered both with scraps and chips,

Drove through them; barriers rising let them pass

Drove through and on and on, with Dad’s moustache

Beside her twitching still round waxen lips

And Mother’s tears still streaming down the glass.

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Poems in English 

• In Memoriam A. H. H.: The Prelude poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H. Obiit MDCCCXXXIII: 3. O Sorrow, cruel poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: Is it, then, regret for buried time poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 131. O living will that shalt endure poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 99. Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 95. By night we linger’d on the lawn poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 83. Dip down upon the northern shore poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 82. I wage not any feud with death poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 7. Dark house, by which once more I s poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 78. Again at Christmas did we weave poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 5. Sometimes I Hold it half a Sin poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 55. The wish, that of the living whol poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 54. Oh, yet we Trust that somehow Goo poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 45. The baby new to earth and sky poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 39. Old warder of these buried bones poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 2. Old Yew, which graspest at the sto poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 22. The path by which we twain did go poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 16. I Envy not in any Moods poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 15. To-night the winds begin to rise poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson
• In Memoriam A. H. H.: 126. Love is and was my Lord and King poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems by Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson

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