-
Henry Vaughan, “The Retreat”
Happy those early dayes! when I Shin’d in my Angell-infancy. Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race, Or taught my soul to fancy oughtBut a white, Celestiall thought, When yet I had not walkt above A mile, or two, from my first love, And looking back (at that short space,) Could see… →
-
Vernon Watkins, “Peace in the Welsh Hills”
Calm is the landscape when the storm has passed, Brighter the fields, and fresh with fallen rain. Where gales beat out new colour from the hills Rivers fly faster, and upon their banks Birds preen their wings, and irises revive. Not so the cities burnt alive with fire Of man’s destruction: when their smoke is… →
-
R. S. Thomas, “Affinity”
Consider this man in the field beneath, Gaitered with mud, lost in his own breath, Without joy, without sorrow. Without children, without wife, Stumbling insensitively from furrow to furrow, A vague somnambulist: but hold your tears, For his name also is written in the Book of Life. Ransack your brainbox, pull out the drawers That… →
-
Dylan Thomas, “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower”
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force that drives the water through the rocks Drives my red blood; that… →
-
Gillian Clarke, “Overheard in County Sligo”
I married a man from County Roscommon and I live in the back of beyond with a field of cows and a yard of hens and six white geese on the pond. At my door’s a square of yellow corn caught up by its corners and shaken, and the road runs down through the open… →