Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PERENNIAL RABBIT, by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PERENNIAL RABBIT, by                    
First Line: The savage by primeval thames
Last Line: In moonlit covers still unplanted!
Subject(s): Animals; Hunting; Rabbits; Hunters; Hares


THE savage by primeval Thames,
Lurking, the mammoth to waylay,
Amid the awful forest stems,
On some far, dim, forgotten day,
As that vast bulk of brawn and beef
Squelched off unscathed through lone morasses,
Would turn, I doubt not, with relief
To where you scuttled in the grasses!

Perhaps my cave-man blood's to blame,
For—atavistic taint—I too
Have dropped a more exacting game,
Bunny, to have a bang at you;
The driven partridge missed in front,
And eke behind, lacks serious merit
Beside a sunny hedgerow hunt,
A terrier and an active ferret!

Give me a summer afternoon,
An air-gun and the drone of bees,
The water-meadows lush with June,
A stalk among the Alderneys;
Then, hit or miss, I care no-ways,
In such surroundings I consider
You're worth a hundred storm-swept braes
And all the royals in Balquidder!

Indeed, wherever I may go,
Through summer woods, by wintry fell,
I've found you, in the sun or snow,
A friendly little Ishmael;
Along the southern trout-stream banks,
Or with the ptarmigan consorting,
You've always earned my grateful thanks,
And in all seasons acted sporting!

Hushed is the hairy mammoths' roar
And gone the mastodon uncouth
Down to decay with dinosaur,
Aurochs, and fearsome sabre-tooth;
But you, small beast in hodden-gray,
Survive, and will, I take for granted,
Be here when I am dust, to play
In moonlit covers still unplanted!





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