Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE FOREST, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Among the golden groves when june walketh there Last Line: But not till now was I with the woods again alone. Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund Subject(s): Forests; Memory; Woods | ||||||||
AMONG the golden groves when June walketh there I go to find old loves in the haunted air, And with the humble bee down the ancient rides I pause whene'er I see where my honey hides. But scarcely now I heed the small welcome moss Or time's secrets read or pore on pit and fosse, Or kindle at blooms I knew not before, Though twayblade haunt the glooms and strange hellebore. The pheasant crows anear, I lift not my head; Wildcats race in fear -- as well flee the dead! Oaks breathe and pines sigh, and all for praise, And yet my soul divines little that each says: But the whole wood moves again and again Memory of old loves, perfect joy of pain; Without words I've found the hid world at last In the woods deep drowned, after so long past: Not my first delight, the sweet Kentish girl, Once ever in my sight, but gone, gone in the whirl Of time's broken stream, till I cannot guess Her smile or primrose gleam of new loveliness: Not my childhood's bliss, in greenwoods to go Where great snakes might hiss, so high reeds did grow, And from early day till eve trembling crept, Pioneers to stray where the black ponds slept: But the rich hours chance gave, where dry-lipped with war I left him to rave on his ridges not far, And lay in a green shade of Aveluy Wood And with those hours allayed the fever in the blood; Not a leaf regarding, but one with the wood's soul, All my thoughts discarding -- refreshed thence and whole I went to live or die, and five years are flown, But not till now was I with the woods again alone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PRINCESS WAKES IN THE WOOD by RANDALL JARRELL CHAMBER MUSIC: 20 by JAMES JOYCE ADVICE TO A FOREST by MAXWELL BODENHEIM A SOUTH CAROLINA FOREST by AMY LOWELL JOY IN THE WOODS by CLAUDE MCKAY IN BLACKWATER WOODS by MARY OLIVER THE PLACE I WANT TO GET BACK TO by MARY OLIVER ALMSWOMEN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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