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Blackberries

by William Allingham
 
 

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3

BRAMBLE-HILL.

Not much to find, not much to see,
But the air is fresh, the path is free,
On a lonely Hill where bramble grows
In tangling clumps, and the brooklet flows
Around its feet with whispering.
Leaf-tufted are the twines in Spring;
The goldfinch builds, the hare has her form;
And when the nightless days are warm,
When grass grows high and small flowers peep,
Far and wide the trailers sweep
Their pinky silver blossoms, which
Are braided with a delicate stitch.
The berries swell with Autumn's power;
Some are red and green and sour,
Some are black and juicy to bite,
Some have a maggot, some a blight.

4

Then frost-nipt leaves hang rusty and tatter'd,
With sleet and hail the bushes are batter'd,
A thorny brake on the barren hill,
Where the whistling blast blows chill.
But under the snow, amid the dark,
Sleeping waits the vernal spark.
I had neither garden nor park.
On Bramble-Hill, by brake and stone,
Many a season I wandered lone,
With laughter, and pray'r, and singing, and moan;
In gray mist and in golden light,
Under the dawn, and the starry night.
Not much to find, not much to see;
But the air was fresh, the path was free.