England and Yesterday

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>TO A CHILD.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Dear Owain, when you are minded</div> <div class="verse">To gather the perfect thing,</div> <div class="verse">Over Abergavenny</div> <div class="verse">Climb in the evening!—</div> <div class="verse">I have seen where orchis dances</div> <div class="verse">A saraband with the Spring;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where samphire leans to ocean,</div> <div class="verse">And shakes in the word he saith;</div> <div class="verse">Or the brood of the peasant ragweed,</div> <div class="verse">Innocent, sweet of breath,</div> <div class="verse">Runs with a wild Welsh river</div> <div class="verse">That never has heard of death;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Where thrift, with a foot shell-tinted,</div> <div class="verse">On the dark coast-road delays;</div> <div class="verse">And foxglove flames in a ruin;</div> <div class="verse">And campion meekly lays</div> <div class="verse">On a crag’s uneven shoulder</div> <div class="verse">Her satiny cheek, for days.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Well: these in their mortal beauty,</div> <div class="verse">And these in their youth, abound.</div> <div class="verse">But over Abergavenny,</div> <div class="verse">Past sunset-hour, I found</div> <div class="verse">(O Holy Grail of a flower!)</div> <div class="verse">The sun on the hilltop ground.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />