The cows stood in a thunder-cloud of flies
As, lagging through the field with trailing feet,
I kicked up scores of skipper butterflies
That hopped a little way, lazy with heat.
The wood I sought was in deep shelter sunk,
Though clematis leaves shone with a glossy sweat
And creeping over ground and up tree-trunk
The ivy in the sun gleamed bright and wet.
Trees with the soot of August suns were black,
Though splashed in places with a bright fire-light:
I praised the daemon of that dim wood-track
Where pepper moths were flittering by night.
Songs brief as Chinese poems the birds sung;
And insects of all sheens, blue, brown and yellow,
Darted and twisted in their flight and hung
On air that groaned like hoarse sweet violoncello.
No leaf in the least breath of wind was turning,
And foliage hung on trees like heavy wigs;
White suns fringed with long rainbow hairs were burning
Inflammable leaves and the light-blackened twigs.
From that small sun patching the wood with light–
O strange to think–hung all things that have breath,
Trees, insects, cows, even moths that fly by night
And man, and life in every form–and death.
Andrew Lang
(Andrew John Young)
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Andrew John Young Poems based on Topics: Laziness, Death & Dying, Light, Night, Nature, Man, Birds, Place, Cows, InsectsReaders Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Nature Poems, Place Poems, Birds Poems, Cows Poems, Laziness Poems, Insects PoemsBased on Keywords: patching, wigs, daemon, fire-light, hopped, clematis, thunder-cloud, flittering, tree-trunk, sheens, inflammable