Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A TRANSCRIPTION, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: This young man comes from your way, tom Last Line: "there's nothen now for nobody, only sorrow." Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund Subject(s): Grief; Home; Nostalgia; Sports; Sorrow; Sadness | ||||||||
"THIS young man comes from your way, Tom." At this The old thin silent fellow on the sack, Who turned some pages with a face of lead, Clapt eyes on me. His quivering jaw released Words sere and rambling as November leaves. "You come from my way .... Ah, I used to know Sturmere, New England, Stoke, the Valley Arms. 'Tis forty years ago. 'Tis changed, no doubt. Yes, I knew all them places." Here the master Of the old-clothes shop pointed me again, "He went a-cricketin' out to Stoke Whit-Monday. "Cricketin'? Ah, there warn't no cricket then, Except the boys might take a bat at nights. The men ne'er played no cricket nor no quoits Nor football. Tenpins -- that was all there was." And pausing, he gave ear to something afar And suddenly heard what made his words ring out. "But we had music in the churches then, The clar'net on a Sunday used to play In Sturmere church -- and as the sayen is, The clar'net used to sound like HEAVEN ON EARTH." O Love, your anthem reached the dealer's den, The rags and rubbish thence all-glorious shone. And he again: "There's no such music now, There's nothen now for nobody, only sorrow." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS ALMSWOMEN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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