They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.
Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate.
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods….
But there is no road through the woods.
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Comments
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is there a ghost in this poem??
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Don't you love the complex rhyme-scheme, including rhymes in the middle of lines 3 and 7 of each verse?
The thin anemones are windflowers, which are flowering in the woods now - but heath should be heather. Does that grow in woods? Is there anyone out there who can tell me? Kipling lived in East Sussex - anyone know the woods there?
In Warnham Nature Reserve in West Sussex there's a huge beech tree, probably well over a hundred years old, which has blown over, lifting its roots out of the ground as beeches do. There in the roots is a neatly laid brick path, which must have been used and then abandoned before the tree grew. -
Reminicent of bygone days before overgrowth hide the pathway.This poet tells a wonderful tale through his verse with many examples to guide the way so expertly poetic.~Suseann
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PEACEFUL
From guest EngStudent (contact)
I'm doing this poem for my AS English Exam tommorow morning, its a beautiful poem, so mysterious. full of question. spirits? remembering the old days. Forset now belongs to the animals...... -
the woods seem almost to me an old mans memory. at first knowing so clear what it is he wants from life but soon life cluttered it with all sorts of brush and change. but in his dreams he knows...
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Feeling the past
70 years ago - perhaps before the invention of the car when people travelled by horseback/coach the sound of horse's hoofbeats would have been heard on this road that is now reclaimed by Mother Nature, My slant on this poem is that the writer is looking into the past and once again hearing those same hoofbeats and the swish of ladies long gowns. Though there is no longer a 'road' there the spirit of those who earlier travelled here can still be experienced.
Von -
I love this poem!
From guest luvi duvi mongoose (contact)
This poem is a favourite of mine. My mother used to read it when I was a little girl, just before I went to bed. That was, before she died. I love it. It's a really feeling poem. -
ermm
From guest Eco boy (contact)
This is quite a nice poem but i dont quite get it. it rhymes and all but i still dont get it. -
can't get it
From guest umm.. (contact)
what do u mean by "they"?? who are they. I just can't get it! -
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The Way Through The Woods
From guest Adrian Romano (contact)
This poem is a personal favourite of mine, I am intrigued by the idea of an abandoned road as one who has been used to the presence of disused railways across the countryside. Could the road through the woods have been axed by a Dr Beeching figure, chair of a British Roads Board, as a cost-cutting measure on half the country's minor roads? -
Entering into the woods at your own risk is risky business to say the least but in this poem it seems to be a must-do to find that old road and be at ease with the all the nature it holds. I love the reference to the ring-doves. I enjoyed reading this piece!
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Very beautiful, its calming and charming. Its almost as if you could see that old road, overgrown with shrubs and grass. I loved this very much.
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Though faries seem to be a European thing (England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland...) This poem makes me wonder what Kipling might have imagined in his days in India! I wonder if he was told of fairies and such as a young boy... and possibly created images of them far, far from where they were known so well!
EVen so, I think this is about faries travelling a road and then taking it away to remain mystical and hidden from the increasing presence of man. -
Many people who come to read the poems also read the comments, this often leads to a conversation on some poems. Often I have been reading a poem, then after reading the comments I realise others have looked at the poem in a different light, this then gives the piece a whole new diamention
And yes, Kipling did indeed write Jungle Book.
AndrewHide -
awww this is so peaceful. kinda calms you and puts your soul at ease, if you get me...
question, who reads these comments when the poet himself is dead? :S
anyway i liked this.. this guy had a real way with words
didnt he write the jungle book? -
TWO THUMBS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is awesome! I love this. a road that was once there now gone and someone going through the woods as if the road still exsited. this is awesome!
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very good
i through the poem was very good. but what does it mean can anyone answer that
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