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"hawthorn" poems
I took the left path where hydrangeas grew and sleepy primroses under woods, edged shady trees. The empty stream ran quietly dry With grass cuttings piling high. If one peeped, one would find tiny creatures To cast a sparkle here and there, a delight. So on tip-toe, with sandels bent Up high I reached to take The plastic fairy as she twirled a pirouette In a theatre made by chance. Reflected in a silver mirror intwinned with ivy branch A mottled foal tends his dreams and Chrismas robin chirps. My brother took the right hand path where the trees grew fruit Ripe berries from the gooseberry bush bulged their prickles. Dangling from hawthorn now a cowboy with a hat Looking for his fellow Indian with the yellow back sack. Sheep gather in a hollow, dark, protected from the sun And Mr toad, now lost of paint, has turned a bit glum. And so we leave our woodland friends and travel up the slope Winding round the rose bed and goldfish where they float. Then up we climb, the middle route, to jump the pruned clipped Hedge. The lawn divided in two halves, a contemporary taste. Now we're nearly at that place where if one was to turn Could see down across the land To the sea and sand. Of all the beauties that I've known Nothing beats this Island home. Love Mary x My grandfather’s retirement bungalow was in Totland Isle of Wight. It was named Innisfail meaning ‘Isle of Ireland’. Behind, the garden led down to magical and delightful to children who came as visitors. My grandfather would prepare this woodland with some suitable surprises. The garden and woodland deserved its own name and in retrospect Is now named ‘Innislandia’ to suggest a separate, mysterious land. Beyond the real world. In the poem A Country Lane on page 8 the latched gate is the back gate to my grandparent’s garden and bungalow in Totland as above.
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Jun 23, 2018
Jun 23, 2018 at 7:57 AM UTC
‘NOPO@HEPO’.My Grandfather’s Garden: Innislandia, The imaginary world of my grandfather.
I took the left path where hydrangeas grew and sleepy primroses under woods, edged shady trees. The empty stream ran quietly dry With grass cuttings piling high. If one peeped, one would find tiny creatures To cast a sparkle here and there, a delight. So on tip-toe, with sandels bent Up high I reached to take The plastic fairy as she twirled a pirouette In a theatre made by chance. Reflected in a silver mirror intwinned with ivy branch A mottled foal tends his dreams and Chrismas robin chirps. My brother took the right hand path where the trees grew fruit Ripe berries from the gooseberry bush bulged their prickles. Dangling from hawthorn now a cowboy with a hat Looking for his fellow Indian with the yellow back sack. Sheep gather in a hollow, dark, protected from the sun And Mr toad, now lost of paint, has turned a bit glum. And so we leave our woodland friends and travel up the slope Winding round the rose bed and goldfish where they float. Then up we climb, the middle route, to jump the pruned clipped Hedge. The lawn divided in two halves, a contemporary taste. Now we're nearly at that place where if one was to turn Could see down across the land To the sea and sand. Of all the beauties that I've known Nothing beats this Island home. Love Mary x My grandfather’s retirement bungalow was in Totland Isle of Wight. It was named Innisfail meaning ‘Isle of Ireland’. Behind, the garden led down to magical and delightful to children who came as visitors. My grandfather would prepare this woodland with some suitable surprises. The garden and woodland deserved its own name and in retrospect Is now named ‘Innislandia’ to suggest a separate, mysterious land. Beyond the real world. In the poem A Country Lane on page 8 the latched gate is the back gate to my grandparent’s garden and bungalow in Totland as above.
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35
The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away, The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers. Pass me the can, lad; there's an end of May. There's one spoilt spring to scant our mortal lot, One season ruined of your little store. May will be fine next year as like as not: But ay, but then we shall be twenty-four. We for a certainty are not the first Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled Their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed Whatever brute and blackguard made the world. It is in truth iniquity on high To cheat our sentenced souls of aught they crave, And mar the merriment as you and I Fare on our long fool's-errand to the grave. Iniquity it is; but pass the can. My lad, no pair of kings our mothers bore; Our only portion is the estate of man: We want the moon, but we shall get no more. If here to-day the cloud of thunder lours To-morrow it will hie on far behests; The flesh will grieve on other bones than ours Soon, and the soul will mourn in other ******* The troubles of our proud and angry dust Are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.
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The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux
1 Ever musing I delight to tread The Paths of honour and the Myrtle Grove Whilst the pale Moon her beams doth shed On disappointed Love. While Philomel on airy hawthorn Bush Sings sweet and Melancholy, And the thrush Converses with the Dove. 2 Gently brawling down the turnpike road, Sweetly noisy falls the Silent Stream — The Moon emerges from behind a Cloud And darts upon the Myrtle Grove her beam. Ah! then what Lovely Scenes appear, The hut, the Cot, the Grot, and Chapel queer, And eke the Abbey too a mouldering heap, Cnceal'd by aged pines her head doth rear And quite invisible doth take a peep.
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Ode to Pity
The two collieries where I was employed, Houses now stand winders destroyed. From a window where I controlled the flow, I could see the horizon far and low. I can also see sunrise and set, Pictures past I won’t forget. Through the shifts seasons would go, From summer sun to winter snow. To wake one morning already too late, Decisions were made to close the gate. Work was gone and mates were lost, Ripped apart at great cost. Left us with a grey slurry beach, The nanny goat path we walked to reach. Down to the coast a ***** line, Carried shale from the mine. Through our town they ran so fast, To tip more waste upon the blast. Now I sit where I want to be, Looking out at the great North Sea. From chemical beach to clean east shore, The north east pits are no more. From brownie box in old dark room, To Digital with super zoom. Memories fade but photos show, All we really need to know. St Marys church to Hawthorn hive, These scenes of Seaham will survive.
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Apr 21, 2010
Apr 21, 2010 at 7:48 AM UTC
My Town Seaham
After the wolves and before the elms the bardic order ended in Ireland. Only a few remained to continue a dead art in a dying land: This is a man on the road from Youghal to Cahirmoyle. He has no comfort, no food and no future. He has no fire to recite his friendless measures by. His riddles and flatteries will have no reward. His patrons sheath their swords in Flanders and Madrid. Reader of poems, lover of poetry— in case you thought this was a gentle art follow this man on a moonless night to the wretched bed he will have to make: The Gaelic world stretches out under a hawthorn tree and burns in the rain. This is its home, its last frail shelter. All of it— Limerick, the Wild Geese and what went before— falters into cadence before he sleeps: He shuts his eyes. Darkness falls on it.
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My Country in Darkness
hi dudes i am in a good mood, i am doing the bbq tomorrow and i tipped kangaroos over essendon kangaroos won adelaide over st kilda adelaide won hawthorn over melbourne hawthorn won GWS over carlton, GWS won sydney over geelong, sydney won west coast over gold coast, west coast won and if fremantle beat western bulldogs and collingwood beat richmond and port adelaide beat brisbane i have tipped all the winners of this round i am doing the bbq tomorrow in kippax hoping i grab the second full winner
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May 16, 2015
May 16, 2015 at 8:37 AM UTC
i am on the way, selecting all the teams, i hope
Too far away, oh love, I know, To save me from this haunted road, Whose lofty roses break and blow On a night-sky bent with a load Of lights: each solitary rose, Each arc-lamp golden does expose Ghost beyond ghost of a blossom, shows Night blenched with a thousand snows. Of hawthorn and of lilac trees, White lilac; shows discoloured night Dripping with all the golden lees Laburnum gives back to light. And shows the red of hawthorn set On high to the purple heaven of night, Like flags in blenched blood newly wet, Blood shed in the noiseless fight. Of life for love and love for life, Of hunger for a little food, Of kissing, lost for want of a wife Long ago, long ago wooed. . . . . . . Too far away you are, my love, To steady my brain in this phantom show That passes the nightly road above And returns again below. The enormous cliff of horse-chestnut trees Has poised on each of its ledges An ***** small girl looking down at me; White-night-gowned little chits I see, And they peep at me over the edges Of the leaves as though they would leap, should I call Them down to my arms; "But, child, you're too small for me, too small Your little charms." White little sheaves of night-gowned maids, Some other will thresh you out! And I see leaning from the shades A lilac like a lady there, who braids Her white mantilla about Her face, and forward leans to catch the sight Of a man's face, Gracefully sighing through the white Flowery mantilla of lace. And another lilac in purple veiled Discreetly, all recklessly calls In a low, shocking perfume, to know who has hailed Her forth from the night: my strength has failed In her voice, my weak heart falls: Oh, and see the laburnum shimmering Her draperies down, As if she would slip the gold, and glimmering White, stand naked of gown. . . . . . . The pageant of flowery trees above The street pale-passionate goes, And back again down the pavement, Love In a lesser pageant flows. Two and two are the folk that walk, They pass in a half embrace Of linked bodies, and they talk With dark face leaning to face. Come then, my love, come as you will Along this haunted road, Be whom you will, my darling, I shall Keep with you the troth I trowed.
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Drunk
Too far away, oh love, I know, To save me from this haunted road, Whose lofty roses break and blow On a night-sky bent with a load Of lights: each solitary rose, Each arc-lamp golden does expose Ghost beyond ghost of a blossom, shows Night blenched with a thousand snows. Of hawthorn and of lilac trees, White lilac; shows discoloured night Dripping with all the golden lees Laburnum gives back to light. And shows the red of hawthorn set On high to the purple heaven of night, Like flags in blenched blood newly wet, Blood shed in the noiseless fight. Of life for love and love for life, Of hunger for a little food, Of kissing, lost for want of a wife Long ago, long ago wooed. . . . . . . Too far away you are, my love, To steady my brain in this phantom show That passes the nightly road above And returns again below. The enormous cliff of horse-chestnut trees Has poised on each of its ledges An ***** small girl looking down at me; White-night-gowned little chits I see, And they peep at me over the edges Of the leaves as though they would leap, should I call Them down to my arms; "But, child, you're too small for me, too small Your little charms." White little sheaves of night-gowned maids, Some other will thresh you out! And I see leaning from the shades A lilac like a lady there, who braids Her white mantilla about Her face, and forward leans to catch the sight Of a man's face, Gracefully sighing through the white Flowery mantilla of lace. And another lilac in purple veiled Discreetly, all recklessly calls In a low, shocking perfume, to know who has hailed Her forth from the night: my strength has failed In her voice, my weak heart falls: Oh, and see the laburnum shimmering Her draperies down, As if she would slip the gold, and glimmering White, stand naked of gown. . . . . . . The pageant of flowery trees above The street pale-passionate goes, And back again down the pavement, Love In a lesser pageant flows. Two and two are the folk that walk, They pass in a half embrace Of linked bodies, and they talk With dark face leaning to face. Come then, my love, come as you will Along this haunted road, Be whom you will, my darling, I shall Keep with you the troth I trowed.
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74
It was in the prime Of the sweet springtime In the linnet's throat Trembled the love note, And the love-stirred air Thrilled the blossoms there. Little shadows danced, Each a tiny elf Happy in large light And the thinnest self. It was but a minute In a far-off spring, But each gentle thing, Sweetly wooing linnet, Soft thrilled hawthorn tree, Happy shadowy elf, With the thinnest self, Live on still in me. It was in the prime Of the past springtime!
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Sweet Springtime
My palms rest Upon the blackened trunk Of a melancholy hawthorn It's choked wood crumbling Into dust Falling between my fingers I rest the side of my face My good ear listening For the tree's whispered secrets... Through the tunnels of my ear The plucking of a lute... The kind voice of a lone minstrel.... Is echoed in every Corner of my mind Promising eternal memory The minstrel sits under a tree The same tree whose burned Breast stands against my face Only a thousand years in the past When the hawthorns skin Was a gold brown tan Fresh and beautiful When pink and white blossoms Grew amongst its green leaves Fresh and beautiful When the young hawthorn's Memory was still young Fresh and beautiful.... The old minstrel sat with his gnarled back Against the hawthorn's body Willow wood lute in hand Face lined with Twelve thousand wrinkles White beard long and weathered Old eyes conversing With the overhanging branches The old minstrel plucks the Gut strings of his lute As if plucking kisses From a **** lover... The lute Being the minstrel's Only companion So many years.... Returning from the hawthorn's Memory of the past It drew tears from My closed eyes I kiss the burned Body of the old tree... Tasting ashes on my wet lips I embrace the tree All my love pouring through This embrace As if we were making love Under the stormy Smoky sky With the ending sighs Of my lungs The hawthorn's Last flow of water The remaining embers Burning black and blood red Engulf both our bodies Our wailing voices Echoing for days.... All that is left Two piles Of gray ashes One to keep the other company In this melancholy World....
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Aug 16, 2012
Aug 16, 2012 at 10:35 PM UTC
Burning Hawthorn
My palms rest Upon the blackened trunk Of a melancholy hawthorn It's choked wood crumbling Into dust Falling between my fingers I rest the side of my face My good ear listening For the tree's whispered secrets... Through the tunnels of my ear The plucking of a lute... The kind voice of a lone minstrel.... Is echoed in every Corner of my mind Promising eternal memory The minstrel sits under a tree The same tree whose burned Breast stands against my face Only a thousand years in the past When the hawthorns skin Was a gold brown tan Fresh and beautiful When pink and white blossoms Grew amongst its green leaves Fresh and beautiful When the young hawthorn's Memory was still young Fresh and beautiful.... The old minstrel sat with his gnarled back Against the hawthorn's body Willow wood lute in hand Face lined with Twelve thousand wrinkles White beard long and weathered Old eyes conversing With the overhanging branches The old minstrel plucks the Gut strings of his lute As if plucking kisses From a **** lover... The lute Being the minstrel's Only companion So many years.... Returning from the hawthorn's Memory of the past It drew tears from My closed eyes I kiss the burned Body of the old tree... Tasting ashes on my wet lips I embrace the tree All my love pouring through This embrace As if we were making love Under the stormy Smoky sky With the ending sighs Of my lungs The hawthorn's Last flow of water The remaining embers Burning black and blood red Engulf both our bodies Our wailing voices Echoing for days.... All that is left Two piles Of gray ashes One to keep the other company In this melancholy World....
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73
I rode the wings of night on rising air That carried me from Africa's wild shore; To fields of meadowsweet and maidenhair To sing of heaven's dome and ocean's floor. Spring greets my song with hawthorn flower and briar. Rewards my voice with nectar-tinted sun; The thrum of earth's renewal is my lyre As thaws begin and waters speed to run. I sing for memories of sultry days For zebras racing over arid plains. I sing of England's tepid Summer haze; Slow-strolling shire horses with plaited manes. From heaven's heights I sing, for life's divine, The purest voice, the lightest heart is mine. ------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES: Written on 22nd June 2003. I did some research about where the Willow Warbler goes on its "migration holidays" before writing this sonnet.
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Sep 6, 2009
Sep 6, 2009 at 3:14 PM UTC
Song of the Willow Warbler
Cascades of red in Hedgehog Houle The beginning of Autumn falls over And breaks the greenest in morning We pass the church arched doorway And the hawthorn berries brightest. Walking the steady step in this day Finding the bend the windy winds Show me little Alfie in his nestling For love carries everything trusting This pathway of flowing memories. Love Mary **
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Oct 15, 2018
Oct 15, 2018 at 8:34 AM UTC
Hedgehog Houle.
BELTANE SONG Here is the coming of summer when the sun shines on the land and the oak tree gives forth his new green leaves The deer run through the forest people dance to the pipe and drum all celebrate the kiss of summer who banishes winter gone We are all one with nature as the Gods and Goddesses are with the planet that is coming into bloom with the scent of hawthorn and elder For Mother Nature has smiled on the land in this the time of Beltane a time of new birth and happiness and a time of love and healing
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Jan 13, 2018
Jan 13, 2018 at 1:50 PM UTC
BELTANE SONG
We stalked hawthorn hedgerows, Backyards our battlefields, Wielding wooden swords, Dustbin-lids, for our shields. We scouted railway cuttings, Long abandoned and disused, Where friendship’s blended alloys, Were cast, forged and fused. We patrolled village streets, Marched along muddied lanes, Proudly defending ‘our land’, From raiding, heathen, Danes’. We boldly challenged Vikings’, Beneath a Sixties-summer-sun, Bonding loyalty, faith and trust, That will never, come undone. Those days will not return, Memories-mismatched-truth, Recalling the fallen heroes, Fighting follies of our youth. Protecting imagined Kingdoms, Lost in time, for evermore, Boy soldiers standing guard, In Castles built from straw.
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Oct 3, 2010
Oct 3, 2010 at 2:06 PM UTC
Boy Soldiers
Beloved, let us once more praise the rain. Let us discover some new alphabet, For this, the often praised; and be ourselves, The rain, the chickweed, and the burdock leaf, The green-white privet flower, the spotted stone, And all that welcomes the rain; the sparrow too,- Who watches with a hard eye from seclusion, Beneath the elm-tree bough, till rain is done. There is an oriole who, upside down, Hangs at his nest, and flicks an orange wing,- Under a tree as dead and still as lead; There is a single leaf, in all this heaven Of leaves, which rain has loosened from its twig: The stem breaks, and it falls, but it is caught Upon a sister leaf, and thus she hangs; There is an acorn cup, beside a mushroom Which catches three drops from the stooping cloud. The timid bee goes back to the hive; the fly Under the broad leaf of the hollyhock Perpends stupid with cold; the raindark snail Surveys the wet world from a watery stone... And still the syllables of water whisper: The wheel of cloud whirs slowly: while we wait In the dark room; and in your heart I find One silver raindrop,-on a hawthorn leaf,- Orion in a cobweb, and the World.
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Beloved, Let Us Once More Praise The Rain
Sand burns red, sunlight hits the little waves, dappled Connemara coat. Berries form. Sweet orbs, sweet life, Spring ticks over. Time's a running clock, silent and unnoticed. May dances in on a breeze. No ribbons, no pole. The dandelions roar in the field, in the garden, daisies blush and whisper to the trees the hawthorn blushes too, what giggling conversation takes place on the seashore?
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Apr 29, 2014
Apr 29, 2014 at 12:23 PM UTC
Eavesdropping
O woe, woe, People are born and die, We also shall be dead pretty soon Therefore let us act as if we were dead already. The bird sits on the hawthorn tree But he dies also, presently. Some lads get hung, and some get shot. Woeful is this human lot. Woe! woe, etcetera . . . . London is a woeful place, Shropshire is much pleasanter. Then let us smile a little space Upon fond nature’s morbid grace. Oh, Woe, woe, woe, etcetera . . . .
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Song In The Manner Of Housman
'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town The golden broom should blow; The hawthorn sprinkled up and down Should charge the land with snow. Spring will not wait the loiterer's time Who keeps so long away; So others wear the broom and climb The hedgerows heaped with may. Oh tarnish late on Wenlock Edge, Gold that I never see; Lie long, high snowdrifts in the hedge That will not shower on me.
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Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town
Hark! The sea-faring wild-fowl loud proclaim My coming, and the swarming of the bees. These are my heralds, and behold! my name Is written in blossoms on the hawthorn-trees. I tell the mariner when to sail the seas; I waft o’er all the land from far away The breath and bloom of the Hesperides, My birthplace. I am Maia. I am May.
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The Poet’s Calendar: 05 - May
Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,— The finger-points look through the rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms ’Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. ’Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above. Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, This close-companioned inarticulate hour When twofold silence was the song of love.
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Silent Noon
There are crackles and scratches woven here; bridges and highways where little things run. Over tangles of brambles and berries a bud’s coming out; a hand lying open in grass. There is bracken crisping; brown and dry; shaded by waxy leaves where water ***** roll. There are bees in the air, flitting around. Air which is thick with nectar and pollen. It’s dense in here; cramped thorns twist, ears are twitching, claws scratch on bark. When the light goes away eyes start to shine, the scurrying gets furious, noises in darkness. An owl glides down and a mouse hurries up but quicker than light, he’s swept from the ground. Spiralling up from his hawthorn nest He’s stolen away; into the night. Sparrows whistle, a feather snags on a branch and the moon bows down to the lilac dawn.
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Mar 21, 2012
Mar 21, 2012 at 8:32 PM UTC
Hedgerow
Within a thick and spreading hawthorn bush That overhung a molehill large and round, I heard from morn to morn a merry thrush Sing hymns to sunrise, and I drank the sound With joy; and often, an intruding guest, I watched her secret toil from day to day— How true she warped the moss to form a nest, And modelled it within with wood and clay; And by and by, like heath-bells gilt with dew, There lay her shining eggs, as bright as flowers, Ink-spotted over shells of greeny blue; And there I witnessed, in the sunny hours, A brood of nature’s minstrels chirp and fly, Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky.
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The Thrush’s Nest
Carrickfergus (1937) - poem by Louis Macneice. I was born in Belfast between the mountain and the gantries To the hooting of lost sirens and the clang of trams; Thence to Smoky Carrick in County Antrim Where the bottle-neck harbour collects the mud which jams The little boats beneath the Norman castle, The pier shining with lumps of crystal salt; The Scotch quarter was a line of residential houses But the Irish quarter was a slum for the blind and halt. The brook ran yellow from the factory stinking of chlorine, The yarn mill called it's funeral cry at noon; Our lights looked over the lough to the lights of Bangor Under the peacock aura of a drowning moon. The Norman walled this town against the country To stop his ears to the yelping of his slave And built a church in the form of a cross but denoting The list of Christ on the cross in the angle of the nave. I was the rectors son, born to the Anglican order, Banned for ever from the candles of the Irish poor; The Chichesters knelt in marble at the end of a transept With ruffs about their necks, their portion sure. The war came and a huge camp of soldiers Grew from the ground in sight of our house with long Dummies hanging from gibbets for bayonet practice And the sentry's challenge echoing all day long; A Yorkshire terrier ran in and out by the gate-lodge Barred to civilians, yapping as if taking affront; Marching at ease and singing 'Who Killed **** Robin?' The troops went out by the lodge and off to the Front. The steamer was camouflaged that took me to England- Sweat and khaki in the Carlisle train; I thought that the war would last for ever and sugar be always rationed and that never again Would the weekly papers not have photos of sandbags And my governess not make bandages from moss And people not have maps above the fireplace With flags on pins moving across and across- Across the hawthorn hedge the noise of bugles, Flares across the night, Somewhere on the lough was a prison ship for Germans, A cage across their sight. I went to school in Dorset, the world of parents Contracted into a puppet world of sons Far from the mill girls, the smell of porter, the salt-mines And the soldiers with their guns. Louis Macneice
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Jun 17, 2016
Jun 17, 2016 at 8:54 AM UTC
Louis MacNeice (1907-1963)
Carrickfergus (1937) - poem by Louis Macneice. I was born in Belfast between the mountain and the gantries To the hooting of lost sirens and the clang of trams; Thence to Smoky Carrick in County Antrim Where the bottle-neck harbour collects the mud which jams The little boats beneath the Norman castle, The pier shining with lumps of crystal salt; The Scotch quarter was a line of residential houses But the Irish quarter was a slum for the blind and halt. The brook ran yellow from the factory stinking of chlorine, The yarn mill called it's funeral cry at noon; Our lights looked over the lough to the lights of Bangor Under the peacock aura of a drowning moon. The Norman walled this town against the country To stop his ears to the yelping of his slave And built a church in the form of a cross but denoting The list of Christ on the cross in the angle of the nave. I was the rectors son, born to the Anglican order, Banned for ever from the candles of the Irish poor; The Chichesters knelt in marble at the end of a transept With ruffs about their necks, their portion sure. The war came and a huge camp of soldiers Grew from the ground in sight of our house with long Dummies hanging from gibbets for bayonet practice And the sentry's challenge echoing all day long; A Yorkshire terrier ran in and out by the gate-lodge Barred to civilians, yapping as if taking affront; Marching at ease and singing 'Who Killed **** Robin?' The troops went out by the lodge and off to the Front. The steamer was camouflaged that took me to England- Sweat and khaki in the Carlisle train; I thought that the war would last for ever and sugar be always rationed and that never again Would the weekly papers not have photos of sandbags And my governess not make bandages from moss And people not have maps above the fireplace With flags on pins moving across and across- Across the hawthorn hedge the noise of bugles, Flares across the night, Somewhere on the lough was a prison ship for Germans, A cage across their sight. I went to school in Dorset, the world of parents Contracted into a puppet world of sons Far from the mill girls, the smell of porter, the salt-mines And the soldiers with their guns. Louis Macneice
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46
Ye banks and braes and streams around The castle o’ Montgomery, Green be your woods, and fair your flowers, Your waters never drumlie! There simmer first unfauld her robes, And there the langest tarry; For there I took the last fareweel O’ my sweet Highland Mary. How sweetly bloomed the gay green birk, How rich the hawthorn’s blossom, As underneath their fragrant shade I clasped her to my ***** The golden hours on angel wings Flew o’er me and my dearie; For dear to me as light and life Was my sweet Highland Mary. Wi’ mony a vow and locked embrace Our parting was fu’ tender; And, pledging aft to meet again, We tore oursels asunder; But, O, fell Death’s untimely frost, That nipt my flower sae early! Now green’s the sod, and cauld’s the clay, That wraps my Highland Mary! O pale, pale now, those rosy lips I aft hae kissed sae fondly; And closed for aye the sparkling glance That dwelt on me sae kindly; And mouldering now in silent dust That heart that lo’ed me dearly! But still within my bosom’s core Shall live my Highland Mary.
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Highland Mary
Here lies, whom hound did ne'er pursue, Nor swiftewd greyhound follow, Whose foot ne'er tainted morning dew, Nor ear heard huntsman's hallo', Old Tiney, surliest of his kind, Who, nurs'd with tender care, And to domestic bounds confin'd, Was still a wild Jack-hare. Though duly from my hand he took His pittance ev'ry night, He did it with a jealous look, And, when he could, would bite. His diet was of wheaten bread, And milk, and oats, and straw, Thistles, or lettuces instead, With sand to scour his maw. On twigs of hawthorn he regal'd, On pippins' russet peel; And, when his juicy salads fail'd, Slic'd carrot pleas'd him well. A Turkey carpet was his lawn, Whereon he lov'd to bound, To skip and gambol like a fawn, And swing his **** around. His frisking wa at evening hours, For then he lost his fear; But most before approaching show'rs, Or when a storm drew near. Eight years and five round rolling moons He thus saw steal away, Dozing out all his idle noons, And ev'ry night at play. I kept him for his humour's sake, For he would oft beguile My heart of thoughts that made it ache, And force me to a smile. But now, beneath this walnut-shade He finds his long, last home, And waits inn snug concealment laid, 'Till gentler **** shall come. He, still more aged, feels the shocks From which no care can save, And, partner once of Tiney's box, Must soon partake his grave.
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Epitaph on a Hare
"Why can't you say what you mean straight out in prose?" Well, say it yourself: then say "It's that, but more, Or less perhaps, or not that way, or not That after all." The meaning of a song Might be an undernote; this tree might mean That leaf as much as trunk, branch, other leaves. And does one know till one begins? And let's Look over hedges far as eyesight lets us, Since road's not, surely, road, but road and hedge And feet and sky and smell of hawthorn, horse-dung.
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Epilogue