WHEN the cloudy evening shows Her white forehead smooth and wise, Whispering truce to friends and foes, Content will from his cobbling rise; Along the cornside then strolls he And never felt more gay and free. Lured by that delightful muse Freedom peacefully prevails; Boldly then Content pursues The privilege of downs and dales; No sooner from his door he gets Than his unharnessed mood curvets. In the plum above his thatch Two young starlings stretch their throats, The creaking door and clapping latch Only provoke their shapeless notes; Two bills upthrust gluck, glup, and wail "The sons of freedom shall prevail." Then across the liberal leys Where brown heads just top the green, Where the coney-courtship plays, The tameless wind dares intervene: And, where Content so lightly strolls, He spins the parsley parasols, And bows blooms down, this way and that, And they as graceful as can be Protest but askingly thereat And bid the free caress the free, Till this republican delight Makes jealous the usurping night. Here a word and there a word The rooks in elmen summits talk, Some casual wood-side bark is heard, Or nibbling mouse beside the baulk -- Nightingales begin and pause As if their music knew no laws. So winning is the time's white whim, So indolent and lively too, Our yeoman finds the dusk and dim More lighted than the mooning blue; And on he sings and saunters there, Suddenly unconfined as air. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GRENADIER by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN THE LAST CHANTEY by RUDYARD KIPLING THE SUICIDE by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY FROM THE ANTIQUE (1) by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI LOVE-LILY by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI POPPY: FANTASTIC EXTRAVAGANCE by FRANCIS THOMPSON |