Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DEATH OF CHILDHOOD BELIEFS, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: There the puddled lonely lane Last Line: Crying armageddon near. Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund Subject(s): Innocence | ||||||||
THERE the puddled lonely lane, Lost among the red swamp sallows, Gleams through drifts of summer rain Down to ford the sandy shallows, Where the dewberry brambles crane. And the stream in cloven clay Round the bridging sheep-gate stutters, Wind-spun leaves burn silver-grey, Far and wide the blue moth flutters Over swathes of warm new hay. Scrambling boys with mad to-do Paddle in the sedges' hem, Ever finding joy anew; Clocks toll time out -- not for them, With what years to frolic through! How shall I return and how Look once more on those old places! For Time's cloud is on me now That each day, each hour effaces Visions once on every bough. Stones could talk together then, Jewels lay for hoes to find, Each oak hid King Charles agen, Ay, nations in his powdered rind; Sorcery lived with homeless men. Spider Dick, with cat's green eyes That could pierce stone walls, has flitted -- By some hedge he shakes and cries, A lost man, half-starved, half-witted, Whom the very stoats despise. Trees on hill-tops then were Palms, Closing pilgrims' arbours in; David walked there singing Psalms; Out of the clouds white seraphin Leaned to watch us fill our bin. Where's the woodman now to tell Will o' the Wisp's odd fiery anger? Where's the ghost to toll the bell Startling midnight with its clangour Till the wind seemed but a knell? Drummers jumping from the tombs Banged and thumped all through the town, Past shut shops and silent rooms While the flaming spires fell down; -- Now but dreary thunder booms. Smuggler trapped in headlong spate, Smuggler's mare with choking whinney, Well I knew your fame, your fate; By the ford and shaking spinney Where you perished I would wait, Half in glory, half in fear, While the fierce flood, trough and crest, Whirled away the shepherd's gear, And sunset wildfire coursed the west, Crying Armageddon near. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HORATIAN VIRTUE by ANTHONY HECHT MONOLOGUE BEFORE AN INNOCENT BEING PRISONED IN A TREE by MARY KINZIE THE EROTIC PHILOSOPHERS by KIZER. CAROLYN THE LANDLADY OF THE WHINTON INN TELLS A STORY by AMY LOWELL THE SUBCULTURE OF THE WRONGLY ACCUSED by THYLIAS MOSS IN THE FUGITIVE by AMIRI BARAKA ALMSWOMEN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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