Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE COCK, by HERMAN FETZER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE COCK, by                    
First Line: Give me a hot summer
Last Line: Says the cock.
Alternate Author Name(s): Falstaff, Jake
Subject(s): Chickens; Cock-fighting; Spring; Summer


Give me a hot summer,
Says the cock,
With the prints of hooves in the caked hogwallow
And the yellow dust smooth as water on the road.
Give me a hot sun to bake the leaves
So the caterpillars will fall from the pig-hickory
And the pinch-bugs walk wobbly on the flagstones.
Give me the blue sky cloudless
So I can spot the hawk at the horizon,
Giving the calls that the hens know,
Making them run to shelter.
Give me the heat rising over the stubble
And the sparrows threshing the shock.
A hot day and a cool dusk,
Says the cock,
With the swallows gibbering under the muddy eaves
And the bats blundering around the dinner-bell
A hot day, says the cock,
And the hens wallowing in the dust-puddles
And the chicks running stiff-legged after butterflies.
I will forsake the hen-house
And roost in the apple-tree;
In the morning I will fly
To the reel of the binder and crow.
Give me the flowers swooning in the sunshine,
The spiders growing fat in the box-stall,
A hot summer, a hot summer,
Says the cock.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net