Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO ROBERT NICHOLS, by ROBERT RANKE GRAVES



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO ROBERT NICHOLS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here by a snowbound river
Last Line: And singing birds are mute.
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


(From Frise on the Somme in February, 1917, in answer to a
letter saying: "I am just finishing my 'Faun's Holiday.' I wish
you were here to feed him with cherries.")

HERE by a snowbound river
In scrapen holes we shiver,
And like old bitterns we
Boom to you plaintively:
Robert, how can I rhyme
Verses for your desire --
Sleek fauns and cherry-time,
Vague music and green trees,
Hot sun and gentle breeze,
England in June attire,
And life born young again,
For your gay goatish brute
Drunk with warm melody
Singing on beds of thyme
With red and rolling eye,
Waking with wanton lute
All the Devonian plain,
Lips dark with juicy stain,
Ears hung with bobbing fruit?
Why should I keep him time?
Why in this cold and rime,
Where even to dream is pain?
No, Robert, there's no reason:
Cherries are out of season,
Ice grips at branch and root,
And singing birds are mute.





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