Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DAY: EVENING, by JOHN CUNNINGHAM


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DAY: EVENING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O'er the heath the heifer strays
Last Line: Bid the setting sun adieu.
Subject(s): Evening; Landscape; Nature; Sunset; Twilight


O'ER the heath the heifer strays
Free -- (the furrow'd task is done) --
Now the village windows blaze,
Burnish'd by the setting sun.

Now he hides behind the hill,
Sinking from a golden sky:
Can the pencil's mimic skill
Copy the refulgent dye?

Trudging as the ploughmen go,
(To the smoking hamlet bound)
Giant-like their shadows grow,
Lengthen'd o'er the level ground.

Where the rising forest spreads
Shelter for the lordly dome,
To their high-built airy beds,
See the rooks returning home.

As the lark, with varied tune,
Carols to the evening loud;
Mark the mild resplendent moon,
Breaking through a parted cloud.

Now the hermit howlet peeps
From the barn or twisted brake;
And the blue mist slowly creeps
Curling on the silver lake.

As the trout in speckled pride
Playful from its bosom springs;
To the banks, a ruffled tide
Verges in successive rings.

Tripping through the silken grass,
O'er the path divided dale,
Mark the rose-complexion'd lass
With her well-pois'd milking pail.

Linnets with unnumber'd notes,
And the cuckoo, bird with two,
Tuning sweet their mellow throats,
Bid the setting sun adieu.





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