Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PASTICHE by ALFRED NOYES

Poet Analysis

First Line: LOW, BEHIND DARK APPLE-BOUGHS
Last Line: MAN HAS DONE HIS BEST.
LOW, behind dark apple-boughs,
And the farmer's gabled house,
Sinks the slowly reddening sun;
Day is nearly done.

Now the harvest-burdened wains
Drone along the scented lanes
Homeward; and the deep skies break,
And the stars awake.

Now the anchor plunges bright;
And the ship that longed for night,
In the haven, far below,
Furls her wings of snow.

It is finished: Love is dead,
And the birds with nestling head
Now beneath a ruffled wing
All forget to sing.

Looming on the coloured West,
Like young giants, fain of rest,
Now the tired labourers go,
Footing dark and slow.

Homeward now from field and fold,
Toilers of the heat and cold,
Men that laboured long to learn,
Patiently return.

In the rosy deeps of space,
Flower-like as an angel's face,
Faint and sweet, from realms afar,
Shines the Vesper star.

It is finished: toil is o'er,
And the sea forgets the shore,
And the moon and stars confess
Man's great weariness.

It is finished, -- song and sin:
And the fruits are gathered in:
And the weary reapers come,
And the last load home.

Now are healed the warrior's wounds;
In the West a bell resounds:
It is finished! sleep and rest!
Man has done his best.



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