Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO LORD DUNSANY (ON HIS RETURN FROM EAST AFRICA) by FRANCIS LEDWIDGE

First Line: FOR YOU I KNIT THESE LINES, AND ON THEIR ENDS
Last Line: AND WHERE THE WEEDS AMONG THE FLOWERS DO SPRING.
Subject(s): AFRICA; GREETINGS; PLUNKETT, EDWARD [DUNSANY] (1878-1957);
FOR you I knit these lines, and on their ends
Hang little tossing bells to ring you home.
The music is all cracked, and Poesy tends
To richer blooms than mine; but you who roam
Thro' coloured gardens of the highest muse,
And leave the door ajar sometimes that we
May steal small breathing things of reds and blues
And things of white sucked empty by the bee,
Will listen to this bunch of bells from me.
My cowslips ring you welcome to the land
Your muse brings honour to in many a tongue,
Not only that I long to clasp your hand,
But that you're missed by poets who have sung
And viewed with doubt the music of their verse
All the long winter, for you love to bring
The true note in and say the wise thing terse,
And show what birds go lame upon a wing,
And where the weeds among the flowers do spring.



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