Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AN OLD ORCHARD IN WINTER, by FLORENCE BOYCE DAVIS First Line: It was years ago, and no one knows Last Line: And make the old orchard their wayside inn. Subject(s): Orchards | ||||||||
It was years ago, and no one knows Just who planted the orchard rows, Bedded and firmed the tender feet Of the Twenty Ounce and the Golden Sweet, And the straggling clan whose branches meet Over Pomona's little aisles, Where sunbeams dimple the snow with smiles. A tumble-down wall and an old rail fence Guard the orchard with poor pretense; And pilferers, footed and winged, come there Even in winter when boughs are bare, And the nuthatch hunts for his meagre share, Peering and pecking this way and that, First up, then down, like an acrobat. Deer stroll in from the mountain pass And paw the snow from the brittle grass, Gratefully nosing the buried treat Of fruit, frost-bitten, and brown, and sweet, Brought to light by their trampling feet; And up where weathering crab-apples cling The grosbeaks cavil and feast and sing. Skies are gray, and the laden wind Clashes the branches, silver-rimmed, Seals the eye of the flicker's hole Leading into an ancient bole, And fills old nests with winter's toll Here, where under the harvest moon Quavered the cry of the gray raccoon. Tracking the snow with padded paw, Sharp hoofprint, and trace of claw, All winter long to the Golden Sweet And the Twenty Ounce and the trees that meet, Neglected and old, in this wild retreat, Come bird and beast in their need akin, And make the old orchard their wayside inn. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LOST ORCHARD by EDGAR LEE MASTERS IN THE ORCHARD by ANNE STEVENSON MY ORCHA'D IN LINDEN LEA by WILLIAM BARNES GOOD-BY AND KEEP COLD by ROBERT FROST AN ORCHARD AT AVIGNON by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON OLD APPLE TREES by WILLIAM DEWITT SNODGRASS OF AN ORCHARD by KATHARINE TYNAN IN BLOOMING ORCHARDS by JOHN BURROUGHS |
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