Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STRATFORD SKETCHES, by WADE WRIGHT OLIVER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STRATFORD SKETCHES, by                    
First Line: When sheep to shearing amble by
Last Line: In dreams of dancing marston, when she was sixteen!
Subject(s): Stratford-on-avon, England


I

When sheep to shearing amble by,
The hungry tradesmen gloat;
And overhead the wind-swept sky
Gleams like a peacock's throat.

Why, then Dick staring in his rags,
With heigh, the day is prime for wool,
Now up, now down, his thick head wags,
Tempting the shears, the merry fool.

And were it not for the crooked rod
The wagging clown is bearing,
'Twere meeter far the sheep should prod
Their driver, Dick, to shearing!

II

Dick and his wife doze i' the ingle;
What wouldn't they give if they were single?
The one with chucklings, nods and beams
Deep in the joy of tavern dreams;
The good wife, torn 'twixt yea and nay,
Bouncing with young rakes in the hay.
And so, the winter evening through,
They dream the deeds they'd like to do,
The while young Joan kicks in the cradle,
And Dickie beats time with a ladle!

III

Walking up to Wixford, I passed an old crone
Pegging the highroad, rheumy and alone,
Her back bent sideways on a knotted staff,
And her wrinkled lips twisted in a sneering laugh.

"Wixford is a long mile; there I went to school;
In dancing Marston sweet sixteen played the trusting fool;
Bore a child in Exhall, lost it in beggar Broom,
And now to drunken Bidford in my old age come!"
Walking past to Wixford, I stopped and looked around;
Saw the lonely old crone sitting on the ground,
Rocking on her thin knees, haughty as a queen,
In dreams of dancing Marston, when she was sixteen!





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