 | John Clare: The Midsummer Cushion |  |
414
STEPPING STONES
The stepping stones that stride the meadow streamsLook picturesque amid springs golden gleams
Where steps the traveller with a warey pace
& boy with laughing leisure in his face
Sits on the midmost stone in very whim
To catch the struttles that beneath him swim
While those accross the hollow lakes are bare
& winter floods no more rave dangers there
But mid the scum left where it roared & fell
The schoolboy hunts to find the pooty shell
Yet there the boisterous geese with golden broods
Hiss fierce & daring in their summer moods
The boys pull off their hats while passing bye
In vain to fright—themselves being forced to fly
| John Clare: The Midsummer Cushion | |