My travels’ dream and talk for many a year,
At length I view thee, hoary Silchester!
Pilgrim long vowed; now only hither led,
As with new zeal by fervent Mitford fed,
Whose voice of poesy and classic grace
Had breathed a new religion on the place.
‘Scaped from the pride, the smoke, the busy hum
Of our metropolis, a later Rome,
How sweet to win one calm, uncrowded day,
Where congregated man hath passed away!
For these old city-walls, a half-league round,
Are but the girdle now of rural ground;
These stones from far-off fields, toil-gathered thence
For man’s protection, but a farm’s ring-fence;
The fruit of all his planning and his pain
By Nature’s certain hand resumed again!
Yet eyes instructed, as along they pass,
May learn from crossing lines of stunted grass,
And stunted wheat-stems, that refuse to grow,
What intersecting causeways sleep below.
And ploughshare, deeplier delving on its path,
Will oft break in on pavement quaint or bath;
Or flax-haired little one, from neighbouring cot,
Will hap on rusted coin, she knows not what;
‘Bout which, though grave collectors make great stir,
Some pretty pebble found had more contented her.
From trees that shade thine amphitheatre,
Hoarse caws the rook, and red-breast carols clear;
All silent else! nor human foot nor call
Are heard to-day within its turfy wall;
Gone-many a century since-its shouts-its shows.
Here thought may now hold commune with repose.
Yet sheds the sun no other evening glow,
Than tinged these walls two thousand years ago;
While leaves, e’en such as then in autumn fell,
Twirling adown with faint decaying smell,
Mix with the pensive thoughts of ruin well.
These walls already reared did C
(John Kenyon)
More Poetry from John Kenyon:
John Kenyon Poems based on Topics: Mind, Pride, Thought & Thinking, Place, Autumn- Moonlight (John Kenyon Poems)
- Pretence. Part II - The Library (John Kenyon Poems)
- Dorchester Amphitheatre . (John Kenyon Poems)
- The Streams (John Kenyon Poems)
- The Gods Of Greece (John Kenyon Poems)
- Shrine Of The Virgin - Part II (John Kenyon Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Mind Poems, Place Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Pride Poems, Autumn PoemsBased on Keywords: red-breast, congregated, amphitheatre, collectors, intersecting, caws, causeways, city-walls, mitford, deeplier, half-league