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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EVENING CLOUDS by FRANCIS LEDWIDGE

First Line: A LITTLE FLOCK OF CLOUDS GO DOWN TO REST
Last Line: AND STILL ON PURLEY COMMON GOOSEBOYS SING.
Subject(s): BROOKE, RUPERT (1887-1915); CLOUDS; POETRY & POETS; SOLDIERS' WRITINGS;
A little flock of clouds go down to rest
In some blue corner off the moon's highway,
With shepherd-winds that shook them in the West
To borrowed shapes of earth, in bright array,
Perhaps to weave a rainbow's gay festoons
Around the lonesome isle which Brooke has made
A little England full of lovely noons,
Or dot it with his country's mountain shade.

Ah, little wanderers, when you reach that isle
Tell him, with dripping dew, they have not failed,
What he loved most; for late I roamed a while
Thro' English fields and down her rivers sailed;
And they remember him with beauty caught
From old desires of Oriental Spring
Heard in his heart with singing overwrought;
And still on Purley Common gooseboys sing.



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