To the London Metropolitan Police
Toward the sun the drenched May-hedges lift
23 lines
Robecq had straw and a comfortable tavern
There men might their sinews feel slowly recovering
14 lines
Through miles of mud we travelled, and by sick valleys-
The Valley of Death at last – most evil alleys,
23 lines
One could not see or think, the heat overcame one,
With a dazzle of square road to challenge and blind one,
19 lines
The rain has come, and the earth must be very glad
Of its moisture, and the made roads, all dust clad;
8 lines
Beauty and bright fame go not together, I
Bought oranges to-day from Queen Deirdre.
12 lines
When March blows, and Monday's linen is shown
On the goose berry bushes, and the worried washer alone
7 lines
What Malvern is the day is, and it's touchstone
Gray velvet, or moonmarked; rich, or bare as bone;
13 lines
What things I have missed today, I know very well
But the seeing of them each new time is miracle,
7 lines
Leckhampton chimney has fallen down
The birds of Crickley have cried it, it is known in the town,
13 lines
O may these days of pain,
These wasted-seeming days,
20 lines
The stars are sliding wanton through trees,
The sky is sliding steady over all.
8 lines
The hoe scrapes earth as fine in grain as sand,
I like the swirl of it and the swing in the hand
8 lines
When the body might tree, and there was use in walking,
In October time — crystal air-time and free words were talking.
8 lines
There is a man who has swept or rubbed a floor
This morning crying in the Most Holy Name
13 lines
So the last poem is laid flat in its place,
And Crickley with Crucifix Comer leaves from my face
26 lines
There is no sound within the cottage now,
But my pen and the sound of long rain
8 lines
Larches are most fitting small red hills
That rise like swollen antheaps likeably
16 lines
The horses of day plunge and are restrained
Dawn broadens to quarter height, and the meadow mists
8 lines
When tobacco came, When Raleigh did first bring in
The unfabled herb, the plant of peace, the king
58 lines
Of lovely knowledge
The high roads left her aside, she was forlorn, a maid —
15 lines
Out beyond Aldgate is a road,
And a broad,
85 lines
The worry and low murmur
Of the black kettle are set
7 lines
What evil coil of Fate has fastened me
Who cannot move to sight, whose bread is sight,
7 lines
Long shines the line of wet lamps dark in gleaming,
The trees so still felt yet as strength not used,
8 lines
Smudgy dawn scarfed in military colours
Northward, and flowing wider like slow sea water,
9 lines
Severn has kilns set all along her banks
Where the thin reeds grow and rushes in ranks;
34 lines
Life softly clanging cymbals were
Plane-trees, poplars Autumn had
28 lines
At Norton Green the tower stands well off road
And is a squareness meaning many things;
13 lines
Aveluy and New Year's eve, and the time as tender
As if green buds grew. In the low West a slender
15 lines
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