Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WAGGONER, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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THE WAGGONER, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The old waggon drudges through the miry lane
Last Line: As centuries past itself would do.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Variant Title(s): The Waggoner, 1919
Subject(s): England; Landscape; Wagons; English


THE old waggon drudges through the miry lane,
By the skulking pond where the pollards frown,
Notched dumb surly images of pain;
On a dulled earth the night droops down.

Wincing to slow and wistful airs
The leaves on the shrubbed oaks know their hour,
And the unknown wandering spoiler bares
The thorned black hedge of a mournful shower.

Small bodies fluster in the dead brown wrack
As the stumbling shaft-horse jingles past
And the waggoner flicks his whip a crack;
The odd light flares on shadows vast

Over the lodges and oasts and byres
Of the darkened farm; the moment hangs wan
As though nature flagged and all desires.
But in the dim court the ghost is gone

From the hug-secret yew to the penthouse wall
And stooping there seems to listen to
The waggoner leading the gray to stall,
As centuries past itself would do.





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