Writing the Stones: Poetry at Stonehenge

In this blog-post Dr Abbi Flint shares some of the poetic associations with England’s most famous stone circle: Stonehenge.

It’s 7.30am on a Wednesday morning. A grey October sky looms over Stonehenge, and the rain has stopped briefly. I am on the Salisbury plain, accompanied by English Heritage colleagues, to record one of the many poems that has been written about this fascinating stone circle.

The poem I read – ‘Night manoeuvres’ by John McAuliffe – is one of hundreds of examples of how poets have engaged with the monument. As archaeologist Mike Parker-Pearson (2023) notes ‘this stone circle has grown in the public imagination to become an icon of the ancient past, an enigmatic relic of the sophisticated prehistoric civilization that built it.’ As such it is unsurprising that Stonehenge has attracted a huge wealth of poetic associations, written in a wide range of forms including sonnets, free verse, long narrative poems with regular rhyme and rhythm, prose poems, abstract and open-form contemporary poetry, and even limericks.

Because so many poets have written about Stonehenge over so many years, their verses provide glimpses into the different ways that the monument has been understood, both in the past and the present. These are great illustrations of how poetry can bring together and tell, sometimes contrasting and conflicting, stories of heritage and place. One of the earliest mentions of Stonehenge in literature is in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12^th century History of the Kings of Britain, in which the stones were described as being transported from Ireland by the wizard Merlin (Parker-Pearson, 2023). Although our understanding of how Stonehenge was built has moved on since then, the folkloric connections with Arthurian legend persist in poetry from the fifteenth century to the present day. In the seventeenth century, poems by John Dryden and James Howell, reported poetically on Dr Charleton’s theory that the monument was a site for crowning Danish Kings. As Joanne Parker (2009) has noted, by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a common poetic association was with druids, drawing on the writing of John Aubrey and William Stukeley. This association continues despite there being no evidence that druids held rituals at stone circles in the past (Parker-Pearson 2023).

Alongside these shifting public understandings of Stonehenge, many poems draw on the sense of mystery and uncertainty around its origins and uses, and the possibility of greater understanding in the future. As this poem on an early twentieth century postcard of Stonehenge illustrates.

Although poetry has not always kept pace with archaeological understandings of the site, some contemporary poems have used archaeological methods as metaphor. In a 2017 poem, ‘Reading the Smithsonian magazine’, Fleda Brown, connects reading about new insights into Stonehenge emerging from non-invasive archaeological survey methods, with the uncertainty of awaiting a medical diagnosis:

The doctor has not yet come in to tell me I am still free of cancer
as far as he can tell. We are outside the henge, we can’t get in

to find out what happened or why […]

Other poems explore how it felt to visit and be at the monument – how people connected with the site physically, intellectually and emotionally. For example, Edward Slow’s 1904 poem ‘Gipsyun at Stounehenge’, written in Wiltshire dialect, describes a day trip to the stones, complete with an elaborate picnic, music and dancing, and reflections on how the monument came to be: by the hand of people, the Devil, or even the actions of the sea.

An zom da think it wur tha sae
Wur our leetle lan da bide,
An that thase Stounes wur drifted up
Ta where they be we ocean's tide.

John McAuliffe’s poem too, imagines contemporary visitors at Stonehenge ‘Dressed as jedi and druids’ clashing with ‘wardens’ and ‘the security detail’, and ends with a question which resonates with the diverse interests in and connections with this site: ‘who will protect the circle of standing stones?’

Beyond the stones

The Poetry, Heritage and Community project, in partnership with English Heritage and their flagship Inspiring Voices programme, is not just about researching into and sharing these existing poetic associations with heritage sites, but to encourage new voices to engage with these sites poetically. After reading ‘Night Manoeuvres’ at the stones, I joined Oxford scholar and poet Clare Mulley (https://www.english.ox.ac.uk/people/clare-mulley) who led an engaging workshop which encouraged children to respond creatively to Stonehenge. We were led around the monument by English Heritage guides Lynne and Josh, then the children captured what they had seen, and how they felt about being at Stonehenge, in words and pictures in response to Clare’s prompt ‘The stones stand still…’. Josh and Lynne also shared a wonderful range of handling objects, including stone and antler tools, to inspire multisensory imaginings of these artefacts’ stories. We hope that these young writers will go on to add their voices to ongoing poetic conversations with heritage places.

The Inspiring Voices Poetry Festival invites young people across England (ages 11-25) to explore the landscape of heritage through poetry!

Hosted by English Heritage and TORCH, this festival is more than a competition: it’s a platform for discovery, connection and creative transformation. Submissions close 27 Feb 2026 - join us in giving voice to the past, present and future.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/inspiring-voices/