Myfanwy by John Betjeman

[Allen Crisp]

"Kind o'er the kinderbank leans my Myfanwy"

What is/was a kinderbank? I know 'kinder' is German for 'children', but I can't visualise anyone leaning over a children's bank.

[boogieboogie]

I don't think there is an answer to your question. The word itself brings about images of youth. But this may be of interest to you anyway:

Betjeman's language is, in its own peculiar way, quite obscure. This is especially true for 21st century readers, for whom the poems are full of unknown terms - words and references that have a very English music but don't make immediate sense. Try to get your head around these lines from Myfanwy:

"Kind o'er the kinderbank leans my Myfanwy"

"Home and Colonial, Star, International"

"Then what sardines in half-lighted passages!"

Betjeman wasn't so plain-talking a poet - he was a poet of the strange, gilded surfaces of a fast-vanishing moment, and his language was proportionally strange and gilded. Some of the specific meanings have vanished, but the effect of their music has not.

[summerhill]

kinder could mean kindling,the small twigs used to start a fire but probably means childrens bank

[Narolines]

Definitely a child's bench - several German furniture manufacturers/retailers advertise them for sale to this very day.