Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROLOGUE (1), by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE



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PROLOGUE (1), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Summer is come - brisk pink, and wilding rose
Last Line: A waif indeed, alas, but not from love a-stray.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter


Summer is come -- brisk pink, and wilding rose,
And all the enchantment which this England knows,
When honeyed hours of sunshine clearly bright
Steal on in beauty to'rds how brief a night;
While yet the cuckoo calls her hollows through --
Two faltering grace notes, now, to every 'oo --
Till the harsh piping of each nesting brood
Fall mute; and sweet-tongued from his solitude
The lingering nightingale in dingle or dell
Sings even the lovelier since he sings, Farewell.

Alas, that June should fade; that time should be
So rich yet fugitive a pageantry.
Forsake it then awhile, and with us fly
Into the past where nothing now can die:
Where even the young and lovely, old and staid,
Live on unchanged -- of purest fantasy made.

Here, then, another pageant; take your ease,
Your hearts attuned to welcome refugees.
See; now they come -- in semblance of a Masque --
Craving your credence -- it is all they ask.
Charles is enthroned; the Plague is o'er, the Fire
That burned half London, in disaster dire,
Is smouldering out; yet not extinct all fears:
For lo, a child is lost, and still in tears!
Comfort will come to her full soon. . . But nay;
I'm telling secrets -- She is in the Play;
A waif indeed, alas, but not from Love a-stray.





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