Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OUR SUSSEX DOWNS, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OUR SUSSEX DOWNS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: My youth is gone -- my youth that laughed and yawned
Last Line: "and youth that laughs and yawns in one short breath."
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Sussex, England


MY youth is gone -- my youth that laughed and yawned
In one sweet breath, and will not come again;
And crumbs of wonder are my scanty fare,
Snatched from the beauty on a hill or plain.
So, as I look, I wonder if the land
Has breathed those shadows in the waters blue!
From all first sounds I half expect to hear,
Not only echoes, but their echoes too.
But when I see -- the first time in my life --
Our Sussex Downs, so mighty, strong and bare
That many a wood of fifteen hundred trees
Seems but a handful scattered lightly there --
"What a great hour," think I, "half-way 'twixt Death
And Youth that laughs and yawns in one short breath."





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