Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STRAYED, by CHARLES ERSKINE SCOTT WOOD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STRAYED, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sunburned dryad of the lanes
Last Line: For the swallows in the eaves.
Subject(s): Dryads; Smoke; Sun


SUNBURNED dryad of the lanes,
In the city street you stare,
Holding pensively the reins
Of your rustic team, their manes
Tawny as your breeze-blown hair —
Nut-brown hair with sunny stains.

Far your thoughts are from this shock,
Far from all this smoke and din,
To your woolly bleating flock,
To that nook where, doffed your frock,
You do ripple to your chin
Near the bubbled, gurgling rock.

There beneath the beech you dream,
Lie upon the grass so cool,
Watch the honest, faithful team,
Standing mid-leg in the stream,
Lift their noses from the pool,
Where the sky and shallows gleam.

There the sounds of evening come
As the hushing world grows dark;
Night-jars croak, and like a drum,
Heard afar, the beetles hum;
Fireflies bear their fancy spark
Till the night is deeply dumb.

Dryad! brown as forest leaves,
Fragrant is your loaded car,
Melons covered o'er with sheaves.
Buyers crowd; but your heart grieves
For the glades where cow-bells are,
For the swallows in the eaves.





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