The Kestrel’s Cry - Richard Jefferies Reimagined #9
A new setting for an old favourite haiku 1 of mine about the Kestrel, inspired by a passage from the writings of Richard Jefferies ...
a light breeze
sweeping the hill
a kestrel’s cry
[…] “Presently a small swift shadow passes across—it is that of a hawk flying low over the hill. He skirts it for some distance, and then shoots out into the air, comes back half-way, and hangs over the fallow below, where there is a small rick. His wings vibrate, striking the air downwards, and only slightly backwards, the tail depressed counteracting the inclination to glide forwards for awhile. In a few moments he slips, as it were, from his balance, but brings, himself up again in a few yards, turning a curve so as to still hover above the rick.” […]
Wild Life in a Southern County (1879)
Written while rambling over the South Downs in Sussex, Richard Jefferies would have been reminded of the walks he took over the chalk downs of his native Wiltshire. Would he have known the white horses in the Vale of the White Horse and surrounding areas. Uffington almost certainly. The white horse at Westbury I doubt. But it was the white horse of my childhood ... I grew up with it and must have first sat on its back around 1956. It’s the largest and most imposing. By standing on tiptoe, I could just see it, from my parents bedroom window. You can read more about their history here ...
Artist Biography
The header image is from a watercolour of the Westbury White Horse (1939) by Eric Ravilious.
Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in East Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landscapes, which examine English landscape and vernacular art with an off-kilter, modernist sensibility and clarity. He served as a war artist, and died when the aircraft he was in was lost off Iceland.
Citation
The recording by Jarek Matusiak is used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. This and many more can be found at - Xeno-Canto a website dedicated to sharing bird sounds from all over the world.
Not a white horse I’m familiar with though we are very familiar with the Uffington white horse in the same county, very often visited…I must check it out next time we holiday in the Somerset/Wiltshire borders, whch we like to do. I love to watch he kestrels hover.
Thanks Helen, it’s just down the road a bit and round the corner. There’s a car park there now but when I was young you had to walk up from the village. A long climb up for young legs!
I haven’t visited the white horses though there is one on the side of a North Yorkshire hill that I’ve seen a few times. Very occasionally I see a kestrel hovering.
There are 8 or possibly ten of them in and around the Vale of the White Horse. All of them quite stupendous. I’m afraid I don’t travel about too much these days so I’ll have to content myself with looking that one up on the internet. Thanks 🙏
Very interesting story about the Westbury White Horse. I love the study of history and this just adds to my curiosity. And song of the kestrel is enchanting.
Thank you. The study of our history is a fascinating subject and Salisbury Plain and the Wiltshire Downs are rich indeed in ancient history. Stonehenge perhaps being the most famous. Our Kestrel I think is very similar to your American Kestrel. Their flight call is quite distinctive as they sideslip in the wind before returning to hovering again.
Marvelous, Clive! Lovely verses and a brilliant quote from Jefferies! And love the work of Ravilious. Great post!
Thanks Ashley, Both Jefferies and Clare had a natural eye for detail and their observations either in prose or poetry were spot on. Way ahead of their time. Ravilious did much the same with painting. As much a social comment as anything – he didn’t shy away from including man-made objects or artefacts and the likes in his paintings even though they could jar a little and perhaps offend the eye. Like the train in this picture. Many landscape artists would have left it out but Ravilious made a point of including it.
🙏
Wonder what a kestrel makes of white horses on hillsides? Interesting links. I didn’t realise there were so many but nothing beats the Cerne Abbas man!
Thanks Georgina ! He is rather splendid and awesome isn’t he. No doubt I’m biased by there is so much history in the old counties of Wessex. The links between Kestrel and the White Horse is entirely my own as I think I first saw my first kestrel hovering above the hillside on which the horse was carved. There are sweeping updrafts of wind which helps them hover. Buzzard too. And the surrounding hills are also used by people hangliding! I wonder what the horses would think of it all …
Sorry missed this. Yes some amazing histories.
I like your new kestrel haiku, which I will transform and transplant! Enjoy every bit of your posts.
Thanks Ed much appreciated 🙏
[…] This hovering hokku was composed by Clive Bennett. […]
Hello, Clive Bennett,
Jefferies’s haiku gives me pleasure in many ways. I also enjoyed hearing the common kestrel cry so thanks for this recording.
all the best,
Donna Fleischer
Thanks Donna.
The essence of this haiku is to be found in the full text (not quoted in my post) but included here …
[…]See—the hawk, after going nearly out of sight, has swept round, and passes again at no great distance; this is a common habit of his kind, to beat round in wide circles. As the breeze strikes him aslant his course he seems to fly for a short time partly on one side, like a skater sliding on the outer edge[…]
It takes its main inspiration from the line – ‘a hawk flying low over the hill’. I see it in a way as a ‘found haiku’ (Colin Blundell). Its resonance however owes a lot to the late Martin Lucas writing on the ‘poetic spell’ and his haiku …
a light rain …
sweeping the moor
the peewit’s cry
From Wingbeats, Snapshot Press, 2008. Originally published – Earthjazz, Ram Publications, 2003
[…] Source: Art in Nature • The Kestrel’s Cry • Kestrel • Art […]