Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE COMMON LOT, by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE COMMON LOT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The sheets on which I rest at night
Last Line: Are sleepy fine and drowsy white.
Subject(s): Children; Play; Childhood


THE sheets on which I rest at night
Are sleepy fine and drowsy white.
Among them are such soft caresses,
And all enchanting sleepinesses.
And when I go to wash my hands
I touch the sweetness of the lands.
What pretty water, swift and shy!
God love my little friend, say I!
The wonderful feeling in my feet
That makes them glad to touch the street,
While through the lanes and market-places
Small happenings assume such graces
The air seems full of smiling faces.
And all the dull, least, common things
Have singing breasts and beating wings.
I let their speech sound in my ear --
The wonderfully small and dear!
They all go singing day and night,
The little children of delight.
The kind and simple shall not say
"We piped to you the livelong day,
But could not get you out to play."
Nay, let me take their shy, small hands
And dance among their innocent bands.
A gray rain lives beneath the eaves,
Green apples grow among green leaves.
Some children in the street let fall
Over our hedge a leather ball.
My feet are glad to touch the ground,
my clean skirt makes a pleasant sound.
If I should go to wash my hands
I should touch the innocence of the lands.
The sheets on which I rest at night
Are sleepy fine and drowsy white.







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