'And 'a babbled of green fields.' -- SHAKESPEARE-CUM-THEOBALD. WHEN the starlings dot the lawn, Cheerily we rise at dawn; Cheerily, with blameless cup, Greet the wise world waking up; -- Ah, they little know of this, -- They of Megalopolis! Comes the long, still morning when Work we ply with book and pen; Then, -- the pure air in our lungs, -- Then 'persuasion tips our tongues'; Then we write as would, I wis, Men in Megalopolis! Next (and not a stroke too soon!) PHYLLIS spreads the meal of noon, Simple, frugal, choicely clean, Gastronomically mean; -- Appetite our entree is, Far from Megalopolis! Salad in our garden grown, Endive, beetroot, -- all our own; Bread, -- we saw it made and how; Milk and cream, -- we know the cow; Nothing here of 'Force' or 'Vis' As at Megalopolis! After, surely, there should be, Somewhere, seats beneath a tree, Where we -- 'twixt the curling rings -- Dream of transitory things; Chiefly of what people miss Drowsed in Megalopolis! Then, before the sunlight wanes, Comes the lounge along the lanes; Comes the rocking shallop tied By the reedy river-side; -- Clearer waves the light keel kiss Than by Megalopolis! So we speed the golden hours In this Hermitage of ours (Hermits we are not, believe! Every Adam has his Eve, Loved with a serener bliss Than in Megalopolis): -- So -- until the shadows fall: Then Good Night say each and all Sleep secure from smoke and din, Quiet Conscience tucks us in; Ah, they nothing know of this, -- They of Megalopolis! (Thus URBANUS to his Wife Babbled of The Simple Life. Then -- his glances unawares Lighting on a List of Shares -- Gulping all his breakfast down, Bustled, by the Train, to TOWN.) | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BIRTHDAY by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE EMPTY BOTTLE by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN A VINDICATION by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS by EMILY A. BRADDOCK THREE GOLDEN STARS by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN |