 | Studies in verse (1865) |  |
So on a week-day often with pretence
His beasts had strayed, or that his fences stood
Unmended on the apple orchard side,
He would contrive to see them day by day:
And what he mended of his fence by day,
As often he would pull it down at night
That he might come and mend it up again;
Like the old dame of story at her web.
Silently coming under silent stars
He heard the hedges heavy with the wind:
As the low morning with a hint of dawn
Drew right and left the leaning clouds, an hour
Before the real sunrise branched in rose.
He saw the gleamy casement where she slept:
And if among the creepers of the wall
A moth, with moon-light wakened, flustered out,
His heart became a vocal tremulous chord
Of agonized vibration. The moved shade
Of foliage on the rafters made him stoop
Behind the bushes fearing to be known,
Or sent him creeping like a felon home.
His beasts had strayed, or that his fences stood
Unmended on the apple orchard side,
He would contrive to see them day by day:
And what he mended of his fence by day,
As often he would pull it down at night
That he might come and mend it up again;
Like the old dame of story at her web.
Silently coming under silent stars
He heard the hedges heavy with the wind:
As the low morning with a hint of dawn
Drew right and left the leaning clouds, an hour
Before the real sunrise branched in rose.
He saw the gleamy casement where she slept:
88
A moth, with moon-light wakened, flustered out,
His heart became a vocal tremulous chord
Of agonized vibration. The moved shade
Of foliage on the rafters made him stoop
Behind the bushes fearing to be known,
Or sent him creeping like a felon home.
| Studies in verse (1865) | |