Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN THE MEADOW, by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE MEADOW, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The smell of wet hay in the heat
Last Line: He'd look into a woman's eyes.


The smell of wet hay in the heat
All morning steaming round him rose,
As, in a kind of nodding doze,
Perched on the hard and jolting seat,
He drove the rattling jangling rake
Round and around the Five Oaks Mead.
With that old mare he scarcely need
To drive at all or keep awake.
Gazing with half-shut, sleepy eyes
At her white flanks and grizzled tail
That flicked and flicked without avail,
To drive away the cloud of flies
That hovered, closing and unclosing,
A shimmering hum and humming shimmer,
Dwindling dim and ever dimmer
In his dazzled sight, till, dozing,
He seemed to hear a murmuring stream
And gaze into a rippling pool
Beneath thick branches dark and cool --
And gazing, gazing till a gleam
Within the darkness caught his eyes,
He saw there smiling up at him
A young girl's face, now rippling dim,
Now flashing clear...
Without surprise
He marked the eyes translucent blue,
The full red lips that seemed to speak,
The curves of rounded chin and cheek,
The low, broad brow, sun-tanned...
He knew
That face, yet could not call to mind
Where he had seen it; and in vain
Strove to recall ... when sudden rain
Crashed down and made the clear pool blind,
And it was lost...
And, with a jerk
That well-nigh shook him from his seat,
He wakened to the steamy heat
And clank and rattle.
Still at work
The stolid mare kept on; and still
Over her hot, white flanks the flies
Hung humming. And his dazzled eyes
Closed gradually again, until
He dozed...
And stood within the door
Of Dinchill dairy, drinking there
Thirst-quenching draughts of stone-cold air --
The scoured white shelves and sanded floor
And shallow milk-pans creamy-white
Gleamed coldly in the dusky light...
And then he saw her, stooping down
Over a milk-pan, while her eyes
Looked up at him without surprise
Over the shoulder of her gown --
Her fresh print gown of speedwell blue...
The eyes that looked out of the cool
Untroubled crystal of the pool
Looked into his again.
He knew
Those eyes now...
From his dreamy doze
A sudden jolting of the rake
Aroused him.
Startled broad awake
He sat upright, lost in amaze
That he should dream of her -- that lass! --
And see her face within the pool!

He'd known her always. Why, at school
They'd sat together in the class.
He'd always liked her well enough,
Young Polly Dale -- and they had played
At Prisoners' Base and Who's Afraid,
At Tiggy and at Blindman's Buff,
A hundred times together...
Ay,
He'd always known her ... It was strange,
Though he had noticed that a change
Had come upon her -- she was shy,
And quieter, since she left school
And put her hair up -- he'd not seen
Her face, till from the glancing sheen
It looked up at him from the pool...

He'd always known her. Every day,
He'd nod to her as they would pass.
He'd always known her, as a lass...
He'd never know her just that way
Again now...
In a different wise
They'd meet -- for how could he forget
His dream ... The next time that they met
He'd look into a woman's eyes.





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