Alongside many an ancient trackway
Linking farm and hamlet, village and town
Through all the length and breadth of Cornwall
You can find them still those quaint old crosses
Emotive in the rough simplicity
Of their carving from the moorland stone,
Eloquent of the simple piety
In which the course of human life was run.
Their fascination does not fade but grows,
Our modern eye admires the sturdy form
Of simple art founded on simple truths,
They please as timeless objects of delight
Although they stand now in an alien world
For few now follow where they show the way
Dead monuments whose charm we recognise
But whose essential purpose we ignore.
And yet if they can stand out long enough
Who knows but that the fashion in belief
May turn again to purposeful creation,
Then would these lovely crosses once more guide
As they adorn our Cornish countryside.
