Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THISTLEDOWN (SPRING ON THE CAMPAGNE), by WILLIAM SHARP



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THISTLEDOWN (SPRING ON THE CAMPAGNE), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Bloweth like snow / from the grey thistles
Last Line: The thistledown.
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): Flowers; Italy; Spring; Italians


Bloweth like snow
From the grey thistles
The thistledown:
And the fairy-feathers
O' the dandelion
Are tossed by the breeze
Hither and thither:
Over the grasses,
The seeding grasses
Where the poppies shake
And the campions waver,
And where the clover,
Purple and white,
Fills leagues with the fragrance
Of sunsweet honey;
Hither and thither
The fairy-feathers
O' the dandelion,
And white puff-balls
O' the thistledown,
Merrily dancing,
Light on the breeze,
Wheeling and sailing,
And laughing to scorn
The butterflies
And the moths of azure;
Blowing like snow
Or foam o' the sea,
Hither and thither
Upward and downward.

Now for a moment
A thistledown
On a white ball resteth,
Sunbleached and hollow;
A human skull
Of the ancient days,
When Sabines and Latins
Made all the land here
As red with blood
As it now is scarlet
With flaming poppies.
Now the feathers,
O' the dandelion,
Like sunlit swan's-down
Long tost by the wind
O'er the laughter of waters,
Are blown like surf
On a hidden rock --
A broken arch
Of a Roman temple,
Where long, long ago,
The swarthy priests
Worshipped their Gods,
The Gods now less than
The very dust
Whence the green grass springeth!
But for a moment, then the wind takes them,
Blows them, plays with them,
Tosses them high through the gold of the sunshine,
Wavers them upward, wavers them downward.
Hither and thither among the white butterflies,
Over and under the blue-moths and honeybees,
Over the leagues of blossoming clover,
Purple and white, the sweet-smelling clover,
Far o'er the grasses,
And grey hanging thistles,
Hither and thither
Are floating and sailing
The fairy-feathers
O' the dandelion,
Bloweth like snow
The joy o' the meadows,
The thistledown.





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