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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE IDLERS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE GIPSIES LIT THEIR FIRES BY THE CHALK-PIT GATE ANEW
Last Line: AND NOT ONE OF THEM ALL SEEMED TO KNOW THE NAME OF CARE.
Subject(s): ENGLAND; GYPSIES; LANDSCAPE; ENGLISH; GIPSIES;

THE gipsies lit their fires by the chalk-pit gate anew,
And the hoppled horses supped in the further dusk and dew;
The gnats flocked round the smoke like idlers as they were
And through the goss and bushes the owls began to churr.

An ell above the woods the last of sunset glowed
With a dusky gold that filled the pond beside the road;
The cricketers had done, the leas all silent lay,
And the carrier's clattering wheels went past and died away.

The gipsies lolled and gossiped, and ate their stolen swedes,
Made merry with mouth-organs, worked toys with piths of reeds:
The old wives puffed their pipes, nigh as black as their hair,
And not one of them all seemed to know the name of care.



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