The Merry Guide
by
A.E. Housman |
Once in the wind of morning |
I ranged the thymy wold; |
The world-wide air was azure |
And all the brooks ran gold.
|
There through the dews beside me |
Behold a youth that trod, |
With feathered cap on forehead, |
And poised a golden rod.
|
With mien to match the morning |
And gay delightful guise |
And friendly brows and laughter |
He looked me in the eyes.
|
Oh whence, I asked, and whither? |
He smiled and would not say, |
And looked at me and beckoned |
And laughed and led the way.
|
And with kind looks and laughter |
And nought to say beside |
We two went on together, |
I and my happy guide.
|
Across the glittering pastures |
And empty upland still |
And solitude of shepherds |
High in the folded hill,
|
By hanging woods and hamlets |
That gaze through orchards down |
On many a windmill turning |
And far-discovered town,
|
With gay regards of promise |
And sure unslackened stride |
And smiles and nothing spoken |
Led on my merry guide.
|
By blowing realms of woodland |
With sunstruck vanes afield |
And cloud-led shadows sailing |
About the windy weald,
|
By valley-guarded granges |
And silver waters wide, |
Content at heart I followed |
With my delightful guide.
|
And like the cloudy shadows |
Across the country blown |
We two fare on for ever, |
But not we two alone.
|
With the great gale we journey |
That breathes from gardens thinned, |
Borne in the drift of blossoms |
Whose petals throng the wind;
|
Buoyed on the heaven-heard whisper |
Of dancing leaflets whirled |
From all the woods that autumn |
Bereaves in all the world.
|
And midst the fluttering legion |
Of all that ever died |
I follow, and before us |
Goes the delightful guide,
|
With lips that brim with laughter |
But never once respond, |
And feet that fly on feathers, |
And serpent-circled wand.
|
A.E. Housman |
Classic Poems |
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[ Bredon Hill ] [ Clunton and Clunbury ] [ 'Is my team ploughing ] [ Parta Quies ] [ On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble; ] [ Loveliest of trees, the cherry now ] [ The Merry Guide ] [ 'Tis time, I think by Wenlock Town ] [ When I came last to Ludlow ] [ When I was one-and-twenty ] |