FOUR YEARS
by: Dinah Maria (Mulock)
Craik (1826-1887)
- T the Midsummer,
when the hay was down,
- Said I mournful--Though my life be in its prime,
- Bare lie my meadows all shorn before their time,
- O'er my sere woodlands the leaves are turning brown;
- It is the hot Midsummer, when the hay is down.
-
- At the Midsummer, when the hay was down,
- Stood she by the brooklet, young and very fair,
- With the first white bindweed twisted in her hair--
- Hair that drooped like birch-boughs, all in her simple gown--
- That eve in high Midsummer, when the hay was down.
-
- At the Midsummer, when the hay was down,
- Crept she a willing bride close into my breast;
- Low-piled the thunder-clouds had sunk into the west,
- Red-eyed the sun out-glared like knight from leaguered town;
- It was the high Midsummer, and the sun was down.
-
- It is Midsummer--all the hay is down,
- Close to her forehead press I dying eyes,
- Praying God shield her till we meet in Paradise,
- Bless her in love's name who was my joy and crown,
- And I go at Midsummer, when the hay is down.
"Four Years" is reprinted
from The Home Book of Verse. Ed. Burton Stevenson. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1915. |
MORE
POEMS BY DINAH MARIA CRAIK |
|