Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ANNUS MIRABILIS (1902), by LAURENCE HOUSMAN Poet's Biography First Line: Daylight was down, and up the cool Last Line: And nightingales at battersea! Subject(s): London | ||||||||
DAYLIGHT was down, and up the cool Bare heaven the moon, o'er roof and elm, Daughter of dusk most wonderful, Went mounting to her realm: And night was only half begun Round Edwardes Square in Kensington. A Sabbath-calm possessed her face, An even glow her bosom filled; High in her solitary place The huntress-heart was stilled: With bow and arrows all laid down She stood and looked on London town. Nay, how can sight of us give rest To that far-travelled heart, or draw The musings of that tranquil breast? I thought -- and gazing, saw Far up above me, high, oh, high, From south to north a heron fly! Oh, swiftly answered! yonder flew The wings of freedom and of hope! Little of London town he knew, The far horizon was his scope. High up he sails, and sees beneath The glimmering ponds of Hampstead Heath, Hendon, and farther out afield Low water-meads are in his ken, And lonely pools by Harrow Weald, And solitudes unloved of men, Where he his fisher's spear dips down: Little he knows of London town. So small, with all its miles of sin, Is London to the grey-winged bird, A cuckoo called at Lincoln's Inn Last April; in Soho was heard The missel-thrush with throat of glee, And nightingales at Battersea! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WHARF ON THAMES-SIDE: WINTER DAWN by LAURENCE BINYON THE IDLER'S CALENDAR: MAY. THE LONDON SEASON by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT A LONDON THOROUGHFARE, 2 A.M. by AMY LOWELL SPRING WIND IN LONDON by KATHERINE MANSFIELD A BALLAD OF WHITECHAPEL by ISAAC ROSENBERG LONDON, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE A CHRISTMAS SONG by LAURENCE HOUSMAN |
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