Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A HAPPY LIFE, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES Poet Analysis First Line: O what a life is this I lead Last Line: With such a life as this to lead? Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H. Subject(s): Environment; Fields; Life; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Pastures; Meadows; Leas | ||||||||
O what a life is this I lead, Far from the hum of human greed; Where Crows, like merchants dressed in black, Go leisurely to work and back; Where Swallows leap and dive and float, And Cuckoo sounds his cheerful note; Where Skylarks now in clouds do rave, Half mad with fret that their souls have By hundreds far more joyous notes Than they can manage with their throats. The ploughman's heavy horses run The field as if in fright -- for fun, Or stand and laugh in voices shrill; Or roll upon their backs until The sky's kicked small enough -- they think; Then to a pool they go and drink. The kine are chewing their old cud, Dreaming, and never think to add Fresh matter that will taste -- as they Lie motionless, and dream away. I hear the sheep a-coughing near; Like little children, when they hear Their elders' sympathy -- so these Sheep force their coughs on me, and please; And many a pretty lamb I see, Who stops his play on seeing me, And runs and tells his mother then. Lord, who would live in towns with men, And hear the hum of human greed -- With such a life as this to lead? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HUNTING PHEASANTS IN A CORNFIELD by ROBERT BLY THREE KINDS OF PLEASURES by ROBERT BLY QUESTION IN A FIELD by LOUISE BOGAN THE LAST MOWING by ROBERT FROST FIELD AND FOREST by RANDALL JARRELL AN EXPLANATION by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON IN FIELDS OF SUMMER by GALWAY KINNELL A BIRD'S ANGER by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES |
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