Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ANCESTORS, by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ANCESTORS, by                    
First Line: September! Come out, 'tis september
Last Line: With asphodel-cover to give 'em good fun!
Subject(s): Hunting; Hunters


"SEPTEMBER! Come out, 'tis September,
The moon of the hunter is young,"
This style, as perhaps you remember,
Stamped songs that our grandpapas sung:
I can see the old boys, in their day-time's December,
But ruddy as pippins and mighty of lung!

I can see the green coats and white beavers,
The guns (the old flint-lock affair),
The cockers they used as retrievers
To pick up their partridge or hare;
No beaters to bungle, no bag-making fevers
Destroy the old-fashioned repose of their air!

I see them come down by the spinney,
They measure and ram in their lead,
Then start through the turnips, with "Prinny"
And "Dash" working gaily ahead;
If a covey is flushed I would wager a guinea
They'll aim for a minute—but kill their birds dead!

They go with their old-world precision,
Their quaintness of garb and of gun,
Till out of my day-dreaming vision
They fade in the slant of the sun;
Let's hope they are tramping o'er manors Elysian,
With asphodel-cover to give 'em good fun!





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