Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CLOUDY JUNE, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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CLOUDY JUNE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Above the hedge the spearman thistle towers
Last Line: Nor tell me I am I.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): England; June; Landscape; English


ABOVE the hedge the spearman thistle towers
And thinks himself the god of all he sees;
But nettles jostle fearless where he glowers,
Like old and stained and sullen tapestries;
And elbowing hemlocks almost turn to trees,
Proud as the sweetbriar with her bubble flowers,
Where puft green spider cowers
To trap the toiling bees.

Here joy shall muse what melancholy tells,
And melancholy smile because of joy,
Whether the poppy breathe arabian spells
To make them friends, or whistling gipsy-boy
Sound them a truce that nothing comes to cloy.
No sunray burns through this slow cloud, nor swells
Noise save the browsing-bells,
Half sorrow and half joy.

Night comes; from fens where blind grey castles frown
A veiled moon ventures on the cavernous sky.
No stir, no tassel-tremble on the down:
Mood dims to nothing: atom-like I lie
Where nightjars burr and barking fox steps by
And hedgehogs talk and play in glimmering brown;
Passions in such night drown,
Nor tell me I am I.





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