If you have climbed a laden apple tree And worked your way through branches intertwined, You will excuse the prodigality Of flickers, grackles, and all much maligned Orchard thieves who tipple where they will, Leaving three-cornered holes in the red sun-dapples Where they have pecked with epicurean bill, And sucked warm cider sweetening in new apples. You will excuse, and you will envy, too, From your secure bough, every flying thing That drops down with a furtive eye on you, To apples beyond your reach . . . tastes them . . . takes wing. . . . You are an alien in this air where go The tribe of those who neither reap nor sow. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN THE RANGITAKI VALLEY by KATHERINE MANSFIELD O DREAMS, O DESTINATIONS by CECIL DAY LEWIS SONGS FOR TWO SEASONS: 1. AFTER GRAVE ILLNESS by CAROL FROST HIGH PLAINS RAG by JAMES GALVIN THE CRANES OF IBYCUS by EMMA LAZARUS THE WALL STREET PIT, MAY, 1901 by EDWIN MARKHAM |