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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker welcomes destruction upon a town deemed unfit for human life.
In plain terms
Bombs are invited to destroy a polluted town.
What can you take from it?
Extreme decay can make destruction seem like a mercy.

Where it applies

  • industrial towns
  • urban planning
  • social criticism

Putting it to work

  • critique urban neglect
  • analyze environmental damage
  • study social decay

Questions to consider

  • When does destruction become preferable to preservation?
  • How does industrialization affect human worth?

Another view

It glorifies violence as a solution to societal problems.

More from John Betjeman

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  3. He would have liked to say goodbye, Shake hands with many friends. In Highgate now his finger-bones Stick through his finger-ends. You, God, who treat him thus…

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