Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON HARTING DOWN, by THOMAS STURGE MOORE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON HARTING DOWN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Once, when their hearts were wild with joy
Last Line: Musings retired or neared.
Alternate Author Name(s): Moore, T. Sturge


ONCE, when their hearts were wild with joy,
They bedded on the downs:
Hours drifted past, the dawn grew ghast,
Their polls wore dewy crowns.

While the stars paled, she, first, awoke
And saw, no more alone,
They kernel were to a herd of deer,
Come round them all unknown.

A dun buck couched upon the left,
A white doe to their right,
An hundred others, like watching mothers,
Loomed peacefully out of night.

Ere she could wake him, they rose and were shaking
Small droplets from cold thighs;
Proudly the leader then streamed them afar
To where the sun would rise.

Till, dot by dot, they threaded the arch
His lifting forehead raised,
And, sublimed to light, were lost to sight,
Though still enthralled she gazed.

Her lover rose and, leaning close,
Through to her mind he peered;
Parked therein, numerous, timid, dumb
Musings retired or neared.





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