Poems of Rural Life in Common English | ||
118
BETWEEN HAYMAKING AND HARVEST
(JOHN AND HIS FRIEND)J.
The sunsped hours, with wheeling shades,
Have warm'd, for month on month, the glades,
Till now the summer wanes;
Though shadows quiver down below
The boughs, that lofty elm-trees throw
Across the dusty lanes;
F.
and docks,
With ruddy stems, have risen tall
Beside the cow-forsaken stall,
All free of hoofy hocks.
119
Along the swath with even side,
The meadow flow'rs have fall'n and died,
And wither'd, rustling dry;
And in between the hay-wale's backs,
The waggon wheels have cut their tracks,
With loads of hay built high,
F.
and bound,
And ev'ry rick with peakèd crown,
Is now down-toned to yellow brown,
And sunburnt, two-thirds round.
J.
The clouds now ride at upper height,
Above the barley yellow white;
By lane and hedge; along
The fields of wheat, that ripen red,
And slowly reel, with giddy head,
In wind that streams full strong,
F.
by copse,
And grass-field, where the cows lie down
Among the bent-grass, ruddy brown,
And thistles' purple tops.
120
So come while sheep, now shorn, may run
Clean white, below the yellow sun,
In daisy beds; before
The swinging hook may come to shear
The yellow wheat with nodding ear,
Come, welcome, to my door.
F.
I'll rest
Beside the clover-whiten'd knap,
With weary hand upon my lap,
One day your happy guest.
Poems of Rural Life in Common English | ||