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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VILLAGE, by RICHARD ALDINGTON Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Now if you saw my village | |||
I Now if you saw my village You'd not think it beautiful, But flat and commonplace- As I'd have called it half a year ago … II But when you've pondered Hour upon chilly hour in those damned trenches You get at the significance of things, Get to know, clearer than before, What a tree means, what a pool, Or a black, wet field in sunlight. One gets to know, In that shell-pierced silence Under the unmoved, ironic stars, How good love of the earth is. So I go strolling, Hands deep in pockets, head aslant, And eyes screwed up against the light, Just loving things Like any other lunatic or lover. III For there's so much to love, So much to see and understand, So much naïveté, whimsicality, Even in a dull village like this. Pigeons and fowls about a pointed haystack; The red-tiled barns we sleep in; The profile of the distant town Misty against the leaden-silver sky; Two ragged willows and a fallen elm With an end of broken wall Glimmering through evening mist- All worthy Rembrandt's hand, Rembrandt who loved homely things … Then there's the rain pool where we wash, Skimming the film-ice with our tingling hands; The elm-fringed dykes and solemn placid fields Flat as a slate and blacker. There's the church- The poorest ever built I think- With all its painted plaster saints Straight from the rue St. Sulpice, Its dreadful painted windows, And Renaissance "St. Jacques le Majeur" Over the porch … IV To-day the larks are up, The willow boughs are red with sap, The last ice melting on the dykes; One side there stands a row of poplars, Slender amazons, martial and tall, And on the other The sunlight makes the red-tiled roofs deep orange … | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest... |
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