First Known when Lost
I never had noticed it until
'Twas gone, - the narrow copse
Where now the woodman lops
The last of the willows with his bill
It was not more than a hedge overgrown.
One meadow's breadth away
I passed it day by day.
Now the soil is bare as bone,
And black betwixt two meadows green,
Though fresh-cut fag got ends
Of hazel made some amends
With a gleam as if flowers they had been.
Strange it could have hidden so near!
And now I see as I look
That the small winding brook,
A tributary's tributary, rises there.
poem by Edward Thomas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
0010 A day, a meadow, a miracle
This is the meadow.
It slopes from bright South
down to the West and North
from the primroses in the southern hedge
down through the violets, sometimes white,
in the western hedge tipping down
to the rabbit warren and
down to the wild garlic
in perpetual shadow in the northern ditch
shouting among the nettles
this is where, each morning in May,
the world is made anew;
there are more wild flowers in this meadow
than you’ll ever see together –
cowslips, oxslips, pink mayflowers,
wild orchids, red scabious,
yellow celandines, clover, cuckoo-pint...
and as the sun curves slowly round,
and the shadow moves aside,
the flowers, saturated with the morning dew,
shine each with a crystal drop
and it’s not until you step among them
and a small cloud of moths and butterflies rise up,
that you see the meadow is so full of life,
sipping its daily bread of dew
and in an hour or so, pollen, honey;
every day this meadow
invites, invents anew
words fresh as dew –
joy, constancy, innocence,
love, freedom, rest,
wonder, praise, and gratitude –
if every day this miracle,
what of tomorrow
and the heart?
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Fifty Faggots
There they stand, on their ends, the fifty fag gots
That once were underwood of hazel and ash
In Jenny Pink's copse. Now, by the hedge
Close packed, they make a thicket fancy alone
Can creep through with the mouse and wren. Next spring
A blackbird or robin will nest there,
Accustomed to them, thinking they will remain
Whatever is for ever to a bird:
This Spring it is too late; the swift has come.
'Twas a hot day for carrying them up:
Better they will never warm me, though they must
Light several Winters' fires. Before they are done
The war will have ended, many other things
Have ended, maybe, that I can no more
Foresee or more control than robin and wren.
poem by Edward Thomas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Snare
Where guinea fowl
nest against the cornfields
and I sometimes saw pheasants,
just on the other side of the tributary,
day after day I found
snares made from fishing gut,
or wire
that was destroying constantly
and I was very angry
when one morning
I found a small duiker there,
with a leg
into which the wire were wringing
and I liberated that small antelope.
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
God's Garden
God made a beatous garden
With lovely flowers strown,
But one straight, narrow pathway
That was not overgrown.
And to this beauteous garden
He brought mankind to live,
And said: 'To you, my children,
These lovely flowers I give.
Prune ye my vines and fig trees,
With care my flowerets tend,
But keep the pathway open
Your home is at the end.'
Then came another master,
Who did not love mankind,
And planted on the pathway
Gold flowers for them to find.
And mankind saw the bright flowers,
That, glitt'ring in the sun,
Quite hid the thorns of av'rice
That poison blood and bone;
And far off many wandered,
And when life's night came on,
They still were seeking gold flowers,
Lost, helpless and alone.
O, cease to heed the glamour
That blinds your foolish eyes,
Look upward to the glitter
Of stars in God's clear skies.
Their ways are pure and harmless
And will not lead astray,
Bid aid your erring footsteps
To keep the narrow way.
And when the sun shines brightly
Tend flowers that God has given
And keep the pathway open
That leads you on to heaven.
poem by Robert Frost
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Habitat-Visions of a fragile planet
Babbling brook bubbles over broken pebbles
Rippling round smooth stones
Wonderful waterfall winding through
Meandering lazily, not in a hurry
Scorched sand beneath burning sun
Heat waves rippling upwards
Reaching towards the dry dead heat
Rushing to drown all in drought
Green grass in fresh pasture
Waving in soft cool breeze
Cattle slowly munching through
Yellow flowers and small green clovers
White streaks of wonder
Taint the clear blue sky
Whips of cloud, invisible mist
Pictures formed, incomprehensible
Black carpet splattered with invasive dots
Sparkle consistently no matter what
These far away stars glisten and shine
Remember how small we are, humbling.
Huge expanse of aqua blue space
Millions of colours mingle into obscurity
Flashes of red, blue, green yellow
Decorate the huge blue mass
Wet, humid sticky, green
Insects buzzing, damp over whelming
the pure heat enough to dizzy oneself
Rainforest drums with snakes like vines.
poem by Fae LundConlon
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Aquamarine
In aquamarine ran off my warmth traversing
mild meadows with swallows of ash
past the pink sunset
Three cherry Cardinals swooped past partly pleased
the brook trickled near
Evading were than icon imaginings
the following Fawns
the spotted taupe-hazel Fawn
Three taupe Robins at a white well
The magic cello hummed earlier
Sword at side passed over my warmth
through the falling cascades
off on the pink sunset
Three cherry Cardinals swooped past partly pleased
The level prairie sat below
Supple were they sandal-ed sand
The sheer slim fawns
The discomfited shuffled Fawns
Three graceless Mothers in the green dell
The ravenous barb earlier crooned
Curtsy at waist my warmth traversing
Casing the waterfall behind
Off in the pink sunset
Three cherry Cardinals swooped past partly pleased
The vertical crests sat above
Brighter be they than tranquil birth
The sheer slim Fawns
The taller edgy Fawns
Three higher Vicars at the mild meadow
Adept Huntsmen
Ran below
In aquamarine ran off my warmth traversing
mild meadows with swallows of ash
past the pink sunset
Three cherry Cardinals
And neither was chosen
as the smoke spewed Black
On a Troopship - 1915
FAREWELL, the village leaning to the hill,
And all the cawing rooks that homeward fly ;
The bees; the drowsy anthem of the mill
The willows winding under April sky !
We watch the breakers crashing on the bow,
And those far flashes in the Eastern haze :
The fields and friends, that were, are fainter now
Than whispering of ancient waterways.
Now England stirs, as stirs a dreamer wound
In immemorial slumber ; lids apart,
Soon will she rouse her giant limbs, attuned
To that old music hidden at her heart.
The small occasions and the menial cries
Fade fast away : the little men beware :
She rises in her circuit of the skies,
An eagle drinking of the mountain air.
We come to harbour in the breath of wars;
Welcome again, the land of our farewells
In this strange ruin, open to the stars,
We find the haven, where her spirit dwells.
poem by Herbert Asquith
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In June In Old Liscreagh
In a lush damp meadow in Liscreagh
In a rushy clump the brown hare lay
From predators well hid away
He doze and sleep for most of the day.
And at twilight he ventures out
For to graze in the pasture fields about
And under the starry cloak of night
He eats his fill in peace and quiet.
It's early Summer in Liscreagh
And badger and her cubs in the twilight gray
Through fields and meadows amble slow
And dig for grubs and earth worms by hedgerow.
And after early morning showers
The old fields in their Summer flowers
In the noon sunshine look fresh and green
And Nature at her best is seen.
And meadows mown for silage and hay
Scent sweetly in June in old Liscreagh
And dark winged swallows in the sky
All day long chirping as they fly.
And butterflies as white as snow
From tree to hedge flit to and fro
And in leafy grove the chaffinch sing
In his own territory he's king.
From Coolikerane bog across the way
The curlew's flute heard in Liscreagh
And robin pipes his lively tune
In Summer's early days in June.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Spring Evening
Come evening, friend, who surrounds my forehead with darkness
Gliding on paths through soft-green sowing.
Also willows beckon solemnly and calmly;
A beloved voice whispers in the branches.
The tranquil wind floats beautiful things here from somewhere,
Scent of daffodils which silverly touches you.
In the hazel bush the blackbird makes music -
A shepherd's song gives answer from the firs.
How long the small house has disappeared
Where now a birch copse gushes;
The pond bears a lonely constellation -
And shadows rounding silently in the goldenness!
And time is so miraculous,
That one looks for angels in human glances
Which delight in innocent play.
Yes! Time is so miraculous.
poem by Georg Trakl
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Question
I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,
Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,
And gentle odours led my steps astray,
Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring
Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay
Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling
Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,
But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream.
There grew pied wind-flowers and violets,
Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth,
The constellated flower that never sets;
Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth
The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets--
Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth--
Its mother's face with Heaven's collected tears,
When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.
And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,
Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured may,
And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine
Was the bright dew, yet drained not by the day;
And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,
With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray;
And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold,
Fairer than any wakened eyes behold.
And nearer to the river's trembling edge
There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white,
And starry river buds among the sedge,
And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,
Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge
With moonlight beams of their own watery light;
And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green
As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.
Methought that of these visionary flowers
I made a nosegay, bound in such a way
That the same hues, which in their natural bowers
Were mingled or opposed, the like array
Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours
Within my hand,--and then, elate and gay,
I hastened to the spot whence I had come,
That I might there present it!--Oh! to whom?
poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
To The Copse
Return to the copse withering like green flowers,
Staying remains the locality, the flowers of seeds.
A blushing blinding pain subjugates to the excess,
Oily flesh ruptures reverently and blisters remake themselves.
A dead body has remained for a long time,
Features are like cracks fully intimidating to the local flesh
Of bodies passing by the copse of greenery and flowers.
Cracking over them are flies too hard to find elsewhere,
Lulling them means paying the penalty of death,
For you die when observing the dead, the plain dead
Of the copse, the corpse to fly never from this locality.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The brook
I looked in the brook and saw a face -
Heigh-ho, but a child was I!
There were rushes and willows in that place,
And they clutched at the brook as the brook ran by;
And the brook it ran its own sweet way,
As a child doth run in heedless play,
And as it ran I heard it say:
"Hasten with me
To the roistering sea
That is wroth with the flame of the morning sky!"
I look in the brook and see a face -
Heigh-ho, but the years go by!
The rushes are dead in the old-time place,
And the willows I knew when a child was I.
And the brook it seemeth to me to say,
As ever it stealeth on its way -
Solemnly now, and not in play:
"Oh, come with me
To the slumbrous sea
That is gray with the peace of the evening sky!"
Heigh-ho, but the years go by -
I would to God that a child were I!
poem by Eugene Field
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Have you got a Brook in your little heart
136
Have you got a Brook in your little heart,
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so—
And nobody knows, so still it flows,
That any brook is there,
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there—
Why, look out for the little brook in March,
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the fills,
And the bridges often go—
And later, in August it may be—
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life,
Some burning noon go dry!
poem by Emily Dickinson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Foxes in My Vineyard
One fair even, at the eve of last summer,
In the green and fertile country fields
Where grew luscious ears of 'eschol' grapes
I lingered by the Ploughman's hedge
Held in glee as plush tendrils cloaked tall stakes
And far afield, an endless pleach of virid vines.
I sought to see the blest, plush plums
Sired by those lustful ears of vine
''Those too, ought be plummy plush'', thought i
For to strum of the grapes there borne i craved
But lo, the vines though lush, the grapes...? All gone!
I scarce could take it true
For harvest yet looms a distant far!
But who had wrought this spiteful deed,
And where had all the green grapes gone?
But soon lunged forth a fox for the brushes green
Twas meet to set my curious soul yet agrief.
And so mused i, how like this vineyard green
A many a fellow, squalor within, splendour without!
Bade bare by ravenous foxes lot
For whilst we shy behind swaddling folds at the blush of dawn
A vixen creepeth in the meadow without!
poem by Nwaga Philip
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Reflections-11
1 Earth
Good dietician
One fourth mud three fourth water
Fresh, kept up green chaste
2 Land
God-made home for man
Oh, man made Satan invades
Land-made life slumping
3 Soil
Monsoon's friend lush green
Carpeted soil-spread healthy
Beasts dwell happily
4 Bharat
India's prologue
Great grand ancestral expanse
History's proud sigh
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Hemlock Tree. (From The German)
O Hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches!
Green not alone in summer time,
But in the winter's frost and rime!
O hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches!
O maiden fair! O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom!
To love me in prosperity,
And leave me in adversity!
O maiden fair! O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom!
The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak'st for thine example!
So long as summer laughs she sings,
But in the autumn spreads her wings!
The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak'st for thine example!
The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirroro f thy falsehood!
It flows so long as falls the rain,
In drought its springs soon dry again.
The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirror of thy falsehood!
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Hedge Layer-Gap Mender
Hedge layer, gap-mender
forged from frost and fissured trees;
your split hazel brash
a white slash against
black wintered leaves.
Rhythm of the billhook
rhythm of the fields
deft, quick, sure,
sharpening the air
with slash, cuts and
stakes spear shaped, stuck notched
crooked up, tawny bark
peeled green in places,
hint of dormant
summer traces.
Wood rips, wood rends, wood gives,
wood cries out as far as the far fields;
Welsh Cobbs black as stout
start as one, rising pall of horse breath
blots out the sallow-sun.
Hedge layer, gap-mender,
glove-less, hands seasoned old-hand;
resurrector, life pleacher,
Green Man for a modern era;
within your living walls
you weave the spring.
poem by Bob Dellar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Like A Fresh Brook Flows
Winter is gone.
And again Spring is here...
On the scene.
Dawn leaves its chill to a warming.
As birds are heard chirping.
And all of nature seems to sing.
Smiling faces seen to grace,
In places where we go.
Letting known their feelings shown.
As blooming flowers are exposed.
And laughter shared among the children,
Bring instant memories.
And romance filled remembered dances,
Slowly...
Like a fresh brook in a forest flows.
Winter is gone.
And again Spring is here...
On the scene.
Dawn arrives with Sunrise warmings,
As nature scents with a lingered tingling.
Ah-ee-ah-oh,
As blooming flowers are exposed.
Ah-ee-ah-oh,
And romance again like a fresh brook flows.
Ah-ee-ah-oh,
As blooming flowers are exposed.
Ah-ee-ah-oh,
And romance again like a fresh brook flows.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Dream in Winter
When all the daisies and daffodils
are buried deep below,
and summer's but a memory
hidden 'pon the drifting snow ~
'tis there beneath the whitened glow,
in a bed of greenest green,
that lives the dreams of springtime hue
with a gleam of emerald sheen.
When all the trees are bared and bent
against wintry winds that blow,
and spring is but a wistful sigh
'pon the branches that bow low ~
'tis there within the boughs so wide,
in a bed of greenest green,
that lives the buds of springtime hue
with a gleam of emerald sheen.
When roses fade 'pon winter's morn
as their petals flee on frosty breath,
and thorns are left to sadly yearn
in their bed of beauty's death ~
'tis there beneath those roses grown,
in a bed of greenest green,
that lives a vision of springtime hue
with a gleam of pastel sheen.
When winter brings a world of white,
a wonderland of icy glow,
and ends the seasons of green, and gold,
hidden 'neath a field of snow ~
'tis there the sleeping earth awaits
in a bed of springtime green,
sighing softly through winter's chill,
'pon a dream of emerald sheen.
poem by Hazelmarie Elliott
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Pike
In the brown water,
Thick and silver-sheened in the sunshine,
Liquid and cool in the shade of the reeds,
A pike dozed.
Lost among the shadows of stems
He lay unnoticed.
Suddenly he flicked his tail,
And a green-and-copper brightness
Ran under the water.
Out from under the reeds
Came the olive-green light,
And orange flashed up
Through the sun-thickened water.
So the fish passed across the pool,
Green and copper,
A darkness and a gleam,
And the blurred reflections of the willows on the opposite bank
Received it.
poem by Amy Lowell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!