Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VALE, by KATHARINE TYNAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VALE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now may deep country beckon and ope and
Last Line: And let him walk with thee about thy shepherd's business.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hinkson, Katharine Tynan
Subject(s): Country Life; Death; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement


NOW may deep country beckon and ope and fields of God receive him!
For an old rosy countryman be dewy meadows spread!
Under the shadow of great hills, by singing waters leave him.
Be sure he will be well content where flocks and herds are fed.

Talk not of city gates of pearl—for pity's sake no cities!
How could he bear the city though its pavement was of gold?
But bid him take his country walks, with the birds singing their ditties,
The sheep and lambs all bleating still as in his fields of old.

Oh, I can see him as of old, blue-eyed, benign and smiling,
And he would lean upon a gate and count his herds again.
The pleasant country on his heart had laid her soft beguiling,
His fields called to him night and day and never called in vain.

Let him awake of a bright morn to growing time and mowing.
The songs of reapers reach his ears, the singing of the scythe.
Give him no stars beneath his feet, but scented clover showing,
The cocksfoot and the sorrel and the sainfoin blithe.

Thou Who art Shepherd of the flock; Thy flock knows no repining!
Give him not mansions ivory-white nor splendid palaces,
Give him instead the happy fields, the mountains still and shining,
And let him walk with Thee about Thy Shepherd's business.





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