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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IFFLEY, by ROBERT PETER TRISTRAM COFFIN Poet Analysis First Line: It is a village off the road Last Line: With morning and the stars. | |||
It is a village off the road That goes to wealth and places Where men have plenty in their minds And famine in their faces, Iffley Church speaks out the hours With a silver bell, Sunrise, weddings, new-blown babes, And not a word of hell. The Iffley rector has a house Which asks all beauty in; His garden is so full of bloom There is no room for Sin. Tea and talk and hollyhocks, A lonely, lordly baker Who shapes the village thews and brawn And feels like God the Maker. Pewter pots of ale and men Who take God's time to think Till Wisdom comes into the inn And joins them in their drink. Fathers of twelve stone and more With poppies for their cheeks, Boys who grow the while you look And burst their woolsey breeks. Women stiff as ancient queens In clean, cheap calico, Bees, and straight young poplar-trees To teach men how to grow. Honey-jars and candle-light, Rose-bushes that friended Sires who have gone to rest With their sweet soil blended. Homely hearths and simple crocks, Plants at casement bars. Cities ruin; these abide With morning and the stars. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWO PROMENADES SENTIMENTALES: 1. RAIN by EDITH SITWELL SUMTER by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL ASOLANDO: SUMMUM BONUM by ROBERT BROWNING HOW'S MY BOY? by SYDNEY THOMPSON DOBELL MARRIAGE A LA MODE: SONG by JOHN DRYDEN A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO SHEPHERDS IN PRAISE OF ASTRAEA by MARY SIDNEY HERBERT |
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