Give me a hot summer, Says the cock, With the prints of hooves in the caked hogwallow And the yellow dust smooth as water on the road. Give me a hot sun to bake the leaves So the caterpillars will fall from the pig-hickory And the pinch-bugs walk wobbly on the flagstones. Give me the blue sky cloudless So I can spot the hawk at the horizon, Giving the calls that the hens know, Making them run to shelter. Give me the heat rising over the stubble And the sparrows threshing the shock. A hot day and a cool dusk, Says the cock, With the swallows gibbering under the muddy eaves And the bats blundering around the dinner-bell A hot day, says the cock, And the hens wallowing in the dust-puddles And the chicks running stiff-legged after butterflies. I will forsake the hen-house And roost in the apple-tree; In the morning I will fly To the reel of the binder and crow. Give me the flowers swooning in the sunshine, The spiders growing fat in the box-stall, A hot summer, a hot summer, Says the cock. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RETURNING, WE HEAR THE LARKS by ISAAC ROSENBERG GOD'S DETERMINATIONS: CHRIST'S REPLY by EDWARD TAYLOR THE MOTHER-FAITH by EVERARD JACK APPLETON I CLEANED MY HOUSE TODAY by KATHARINE CANBY BALDERSTON THE SCEPTIC by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON PSALM 127 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE DEEP SUMMER by HARRIET GRAY BLACKWELL |