Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AT BRANDON, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT BRANDON, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: On the ivied house the starling
Last Line: Made a lover of the night.
Subject(s): Birds; Nature; Night; Bedtime


ON the ivied house the starling
Clapped his beak as we went by,
And the chaffinch, homeward flying,
Slipped in loops across the sky.
Here and there a hermit poplar
Musing on his stature stood,
And we heard, advancing farther,
Unseen wings within the wood.
What a lesson is the forest
For a brotherhood of life!
What a green rebuke for nations
Ever ready for the strife!
Here within a space no longer
Than a blackbird floats unfanned,
Oak and elm and beech, the chieftains,
Spire in peace above the land.

Here we heard the windy shepherd
Making cloudy lambkins pass
Over Nature's pupils dreaming
With their mistress in the grass.
As we lay a stockdove fluttered,
Settled on a branch in view,
And we saw her comely plumpness
Lined against the evening blue,
Till she spied beneath her pouting
Shapes that are the pulse of flight—
Thought us enemies, and melted
Very softly out of sight
Westward, where a wall of blackness
Stood before a yellow lake,
While along the inky summit
Crawled a great and golden snake!

Here we heard the whitethroats homing
From the rambles of the day;
Heard the prophet thrush proclaiming
Divination from his spray.
Bringing back his song from spaces
Where the world is faintly seen,
To his field the lark descended,
Seeking slumber in the green.
Multitudes of gossip creatures
Darkness gathered to repose;
But we drank of Nature's silence
Till the huntress moon arose—
Till Diana, lap and bosom
Finely full of stolen light,
By her beautiful unbending
Made a lover of the night.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net