LOB LIE BY THE FIRE by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

He squats by the fire
On his three-legged stool,
When all in the house
With slumber are full.

And he warms his great hands,
Hanging loose from each knee,
And he whistles as soft
As the night wind at sea.

For his work now is done;
All the water is sweet;
He has turned each brown loaf,
And breathed magic on it.

The milk in the pan,
And the bacon on beam
He has 'spelled' with his thumb,
And bewitched has the dream.

Not a mouse, not a moth,
Not a spider but sat,
And quaked as it wondered
What next he'd be at.

But his heart, O, his heart --
It belies his great nose;
And at gleam of his eye
Not a soul would suppose

He had stooped with great thumbs,
And big thatched head,
To tuck his small mistress
More snugly in bed.

Who would think, now, a throat
So lank and so thin
Might make birds seem to warble
In the dream she is in!

Now, hunched by the fire,
While the embers burn low,
He nods until daybreak,
And at daybreak he'll go.

Soon the first cock will 'light
From his perch and point high
His beak at the Ploughboy
Grown pale in the sky;

And crow will he shrill;
Then, meek as a mouse,
Lob will rouse up and shuffle
Straight out of the house.

His supper for breakfast;
For wages his work;
And to warm his great hands
Just an hour in the mirk.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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