THE low-branched oak-tree made A background of steep shade To that first family group of four. And how well I remember In the sunlight of September The shifting and the hushing of the four. Beatrix was close-propped by Katie and Emily: I, crouched between, made up the four. Ended at last the hushing, The nudging and sly pushing, Till all sat stiff upon the grassy floor. Yes, all of us is here— Bonneted dark eyes peer, I staring most of all the four: Their proud and summer draping, Their shut smiles half escaping, And the perplexity my small face wore. But something here is gone. Where is the bow that shone Seven-hued, high-arched above the four? Artist, were you so blinded, So envious or cold-minded, That you showed not the sign that arched us o'er? And something dark appears Now after thirty years, A bony shade glooms on the four. Artist, did you espy it Far off, and deny it, So that not then the shade gloomed "Never more"? Katie and Emily, Beatrix between, and I Leaned on thin hand made up the four. Still the wide oak may stoop there And other children group there, But not in mortal flesh again that four. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPIGRAMS: BOOK I, 1 by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS HYMN TO FIRE by KONSTANTIN DMITRIYEVICH BALMONT SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 6. LOVE'S DESPAIR by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) PSALM 23 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE LES HALLES D'YPRES by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN OUR SCARLET KING by HAROLD MARTIN BOWMAN THE CANTERBURY TALES: EPILOGUE TO THE NUN'S PRIEST'S TALE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER ON THE DEATH OF SIR ANTHONY VANDIKE, THE FAMOUS PAINTER by ABRAHAM COWLEY |