Simon Armitage’s poem “Avalon” is a concise yet powerful reflection on love, longing, and the idea of unattainable perfection. Armitage uses the mythical island of Avalon as a metaphor for an idealized love—one that exists only in the imagination and remains forever out of reach. Avalon, often depicted in Arthurian legend as a paradise, symbolizes a place of beauty and tranquility, but in the context of the poem, it reflects the speaker’s yearning for a love that cannot be fully realized.
The poem’s brevity enhances its impact, allowing Armitage to convey complex emotions through simple, clear language. The speaker expresses a deep sense of desire, yet there is an underlying awareness that this love may always remain a distant dream. Through “Avalon”, Armitage explores the universal theme of longing for something perfect, while acknowledging the inevitability of disappointment. In just a few short lines, the poem captures the bittersweet nature of love and desire.

To the Metropolitan Police Force, London:
the asylum gates are locked and chained, but undone
by wandering thoughts and the close study of maps.
So from San Francisco, patron city of tramps,
I scribble this note, having overshot Gloucester
by several million strides, having walked on water.
City of sad foghorns and clapboard ziggurats,
of snakes-and-ladders streets and cadged cigarettes,
city of pelicans, fish bones and flaking paint,
of underfoot cable-car wires strained to breaking point
I eat little  a beard of grass, a pinch of oats
let the salt-tide scour and purge me inside and out,
but my mind still phosphoresces with lightning strikes
and I straddle each earthquake, one foot either side
of the fault line, rocking the world’s seesaw.
At dusk, the Golden Gate Bridge is heaven’s seashore:
I watch boats heading home with the day’s catch
or ferrying souls to glittering Alcatraz,
or I face west and let the Pacific slip
in bloodshot glory over the planet’s lip,
sense the waterfall at the end of the journey.
I am, ever your countryman, Ivor Gurney.