Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CRICKET FIELD AT GERMANTOWN, by ARTHUR PETERSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CRICKET FIELD AT GERMANTOWN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The field-the fair and level green
Last Line: As when a victory is won!
Subject(s): Cricket (game); Sports; Sports - Arenas And Stadia


1

The field -- the fair and level green
Which stretches off and all around;
The crowd, dark-circling round the ground;
The flags which overhead are seen!
High hauled into the noonday air
The red cloud of great England's love;
Beyond, with star-lit azure square,
And stripes of white and crimson wove,
Our standard, as a sunrise bright;
About the field, some near, some far,
White figures stand or run, and are
Now cheered, now watched with anxious sight.

2

I lie beneath the shade of trees,
An idler in this sportful fray;
Out in the sun the players play,
And lift their caps to feel the breeze.
My eyes go up to faces fair
Which look from under flags that flame
Afront the gay pavilion's stair,
Sweet queens who sit above the game.
A profile like a dream of Greece,
With hair in twinings statuesque;
A head like one which from the desk
Of Phidias might have gazed in peace.
Far up the rows soft colors warm
The air about a May-day face;
Gaily the half-uncovered arm
Waves the light fan which shares its grace.
And near, in white, with northern hair,
Pale-yellow, parted low upon
A forehead exquisite, is one
For whom a man thinks he could bear
Death, torture: whose sweet girlhood seems
An Eden life, of some fair place
Far off, some garden of his dreams:
His blood, ere harm to her young face.

3

These ladies, lovelier than the morn
Of some rich-hearted day in June,
Whose eyes are love, whose voices tune;
These banners, which the field adorn;
This music, sweetening all the air,
And making fairy-land below;
This luxury, this kingly show --
Is it a dream of times that bear
The fame of Arthur on their front?
Is it the field of Camelot,
The glory of a joust, the hunt
For ladies' smiles through battle hot?

4

A shout from out the field -- I lift
Myself from dreams of a far then
Into this waning day again.
Across the green begins to drift
The breaking crowd -- the game is done.
I see bright, ladies' colors flit;
I see the splendor in the sun
Of banners of gay buntings knit;
I hear a knightly march begun,
As when a victory is won!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net