Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RIDE, by FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS GIFFORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RIDE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lean in the saddle and look aside
Last Line: Ride!
Alternate Author Name(s): Davis, Fannie Stearns
Subject(s): Horseback Riding


LEAN in the saddle and look aside.
Ride!

Turn the flame of your face away.
It is white as a tree in May.
It is bright as a star at sea.
It is terribly dear to me.

Lean in the saddle and look aside.
Ride!

Black-maned Balor is proud of you,
Racing down in the dawn-red dew;
Racing down with the dust behind,
(Crackling lash of the sun and wind,)

Black-maned Balor will never see
Here in the bushes the eyes of me,
Staring out like a fox in lair,
Hungering out through my clotted hair,
Pulling you from the saddle, down,
Down through the fern and the bracken brown,
Down, to the hollow where I lie,
Trembling to feel your face flash by.

Ah, but you must not see -- not see!
You must never look once at me.

Days gone by, and I rode with you
Over the dust and under the dew:
Light and perilous, rash to ride,
Laughing, high as a hawk with pride.

Now I kneel in the brake and hide.
(Ride.)

Oh, if I might stand clear and cry,
"Look! It is I again! It is I!"
Swing you down from the saddle, -- No!
Turn the flame of your face and go!
Watch the white clouds up in the wind;
Laugh for the keen miles cast behind.
Look not down at the burnt road-side.

Dogs that have bitten must slink and hide.
-- God! that I loved you and hurt you! -- See,
I will not ask for one look at me.
Safe as a star in the sky-ways wide
Ride!

Galloping hoofs on my heart, my pride.
Love of me, Love of me, lean aside!
RIDE!





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