Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A GIPSY FUNERAL, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A GIPSY FUNERAL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: While seeking in a warwick lane
Last Line: Or in a gipsies' camp.
Subject(s): Funerals; Gypsies; Burials; Gipsies


WHILE seeking in a Warwick lane
The nest a greenfinch hoped to save,
I met a Gipsy group that bore
An infant to the grave.

In front of all the father strode,
The narrow case beneath his arm:
Fast down his sun-tann'd cheeks there rolled
The teardrops salt and warm.

His neck a scarlet kerchief bound,
His chieftain's head was duly bare:
His heart was in the box of deal
With baby lips and hair.

The mother went with tearless eyes,
One hand upon the coffin laid;
The other clutched the breast that yearned
To feed the little maid.

A yellowhammer flew along
In golden jaunts, securely fleet:
None watched the living topaz fly
Adown the leafy street.

I wished those times could come again
When man, possessing more of worth,
Had God for closer neighbour here,
And prophets on the earth.

Elijah would have stretched himself
In faith upon the Gipsy child,
And then have watched the parents smile
As once the Widow smiled.

Not now shall Death be forced to bear
A second lighting of the lamp
He snuffs beside an emperor's bed,
Or in a Gipsies' camp.





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