University of Virginia Library

A MEMORY

Five miles and more of common land,
Where yellowing elm trees, either hand,
Rise among cottages of thatched
Thick roofs, with massy stonecrop patched;
Old-fashioned blossoms droop before
The lattice windows and low door:
Whilst all around there will not cease
Quaint clamour of the flapping geese;
Gray wings, white breasts, a storm of feathers,
Delighting in the worst of weathers.
The plashy roadway winds along;
And the wind wails in gusty song
Down from the heather hills' far blue
Mists and white clouds, and wanders through
All the sad common: yellowing elms
Moan, as the quick gust overwhelms
Their wintry fellowship of boughs.
One yellow, curved, vast waggon ploughs
Homeward through ancient ruts, with creak
And groan of the great wheels, that speak
Their slow and cumbrous travelling.
And winds, and elms, and wheels, all sing
The burden of the wintering;
Of dead leaves rotting, field mists rising;
Melancholy signs of snow surprising
Earth with dreary wonder; rivers,
Where the steely water shivers;
Hedges bare of berries red;
A dead world! all nature dead.
A few drops wake the dull road-pools;
A drizzling rain, that chills, not cools,
The tired and smoking team; while gray
Dolorous clouds make faster way
Over pale skies, with ragged rims.
Their heavy trailing clogs and dims,
What waterish ray of light yet swims
Out from the lamentable sky.
Earth decays, Heavens are weeping: I
Tramp the long common, glad to be
Still summer-hearted, sorrow-free.