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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


RURAL EVENING by JOHN BYRNE LEICESTER WARREN

First Line: THE WHIP CRACKS ON THE PLOUGH-TEAM'S FLANK
Last Line: AND A FIDDLE SCRAMBLING AFTER.
Subject(s): COUNTRY LIFE; EVENING; LANDSCAPE; SUNSET; TWILIGHT;

THE whip cracks on the plough-team's flank,
The thresher's flail beats duller.
The round of day has warmed a bank
Of cloud to primrose colour.

The dairy girls cry home the kine,
The kine in answer lowing;
The rough-haired louts with sleepy shouts
Keep crows whence seed is growing.

The creaking wain, brushed through the lane,
Hangs straws on hedges narrow;
And smoothly cleaves the soughing plough,
And harsher grinds the harrow.

Comes, from the road-side inn caught up,
A brawl of crowded laughter,
Thro' falling brooks and cawing rooks
And a fiddle scrambling after.



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