 | Poems of Rural Life in Common English |  |
12
WHITE IN THE NIGHT
And John, that by day is down at mill,
As soon as the night is come,
Goes out from his millgear standing still,
For home, all white in the night.
As soon as the night is come,
Goes out from his millgear standing still,
For home, all white in the night.
And Jenny may wear her white, as out
To town she may take her road
By day; but at dusk no more's about
Abroad, in white in the night.
To town she may take her road
By day; but at dusk no more's about
Abroad, in white in the night.
For though at the brook the bridge is strong,
And white as it white can be,
That folk in the dark may not go wrong,
But see its white in the night.
And white as it white can be,
That folk in the dark may not go wrong,
But see its white in the night.
13
And though the full moon may freely shed
Its beams upon gate and wall,
And down on the road that people tread
They fall, so white in the night.
Its beams upon gate and wall,
And down on the road that people tread
They fall, so white in the night.
Yet Jenny at dusk is fearful now,
Since once, in the mead alone,
She took for a ghost a sheeted cow,
Outshown in white in the night.
Since once, in the mead alone,
She took for a ghost a sheeted cow,
Outshown in white in the night.
O Jenny, the while the moon may gleam,
I wish you would come and roam
With me, to behold the falling stream
In foam so white in the night.
I wish you would come and roam
With me, to behold the falling stream
In foam so white in the night.
For fairer than all the hues of day,
Or grass, or the sky of blue,
Or blossoms of spring that shine so gay,
Are you in white in the night.
Or grass, or the sky of blue,
Or blossoms of spring that shine so gay,
Are you in white in the night.
| Poems of Rural Life in Common English | |