Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


INTERMEZZO; PASTORAL: 7. IN THE MEADOWS AT MANTUA by ARTHUR WILLIAM SYMONS

Poet Analysis

First Line: BUT TO HAVE LAIN UPON THE GRASS
Last Line: THE MEADOW-GRASS AT MANTUA!
Subject(s): FIELDS; MANTUA, ITALY; PASTURES; MEADOWS; LEAS;

BUT to have lain upon the grass
One perfect day, one perfect hour,
Beholding all things mortal pass
Into the quiet of green grass;

But to have lain and loved the sun,
Under the shadow of the trees,
To have been found in unison,
Once only, with the blessed sun;

Ah! in these flaring London nights,
Where midnight withers into morn,
How quiet a rebuke it writes
Across the sky of London nights!

Upon the grass at Mantua
These London nights were all forgot.
They wake for me again: but ah,
The meadow-grass at Mantua!



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