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AFTER A HOLIDAY by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: THREE LITTLE DUCKS BY A DOOR
Last Line: FROM THE PAIN OF THIS TARRYING-PLACE.
Subject(s): VACATION;

THREE little ducks by a door,
Snuggling aside in the sun;
The sweep of a threshing-floor,
A flail with its One-two, One;

A shaggy-haired, loose-limbed mare,
Grave as a master at class;
A foal with its heels in the air,
Rolling, for joy, in the grass;

A sunny-eyed, golden-haired lad,
Laughing, astride on a wall;
A collie-dog, lazily glad...
Why do I think of it all?

Why? From my window I see
Once more, through the dust-dry pane,
The sky like a great Dead Sea,
And the lash of the London rain;

And I read -- here in London town,
Of a murder done at my gate,
And a goodly ship gone down,
And of homes made desolate;

And I know, with the old sick heart,
That but for a moment's space
We may shut our sense, and part
From the pain of this tarrying-place.



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