The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme The witch of Shiloh, the last of the Wampanoags, the gentle earl, the enchanted voyage |
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 | The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme |  |
II
She pointed out a modest cot,
Bedight with shingled porch and gable,
And, close behind, a garden lot
And roomy barn and airy stable.
A well and woodpile graced a yard
Where hum of beehives, honey-laden,
And bustling whirs of spinning jarred
Through drowsy hymns of a rosy maiden.
Bedight with shingled porch and gable,
And, close behind, a garden lot
56
A well and woodpile graced a yard
Where hum of beehives, honey-laden,
And bustling whirs of spinning jarred
Through drowsy hymns of a rosy maiden.
Beyond declined a dimpled run
Of ploughing land and wood and meadow,
Where gladsome corn revered the sun
And thankful kine reposed in shadow:
A Shiloh farm of knobs and wales
Without a lonely level acre,
But choicely rimmed with chestnut rails
And kept as clean as any Quaker.
Of ploughing land and wood and meadow,
Where gladsome corn revered the sun
And thankful kine reposed in shadow:
A Shiloh farm of knobs and wales
Without a lonely level acre,
But choicely rimmed with chestnut rails
And kept as clean as any Quaker.
There dwelt our solar prototype
When duty did not send him shining
To give the Lion's tail a gripe
And set the Unicorn a-whining.
Beside his grindstone Downing stood,
In shirtsleeves moiling, as he wonted,
To keen anew his sabre's mood,
But lately sorely gapped and blunted
In slicing various Tory knaves
Who came by night to burn and pillage,
And drive our fathers off for slaves,
And make an end of Shiloh village.
When duty did not send him shining
To give the Lion's tail a gripe
And set the Unicorn a-whining.
Beside his grindstone Downing stood,
In shirtsleeves moiling, as he wonted,
To keen anew his sabre's mood,
But lately sorely gapped and blunted
In slicing various Tory knaves
Who came by night to burn and pillage,
And drive our fathers off for slaves,
And make an end of Shiloh village.
| The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme | |