Fox's Dingle

written by


« Reload image

  Take now a country mood,
  Resolve, distil it: —
  Nine Acre swaying alive,
  June flowers that fill it,

  Spicy sweet-briar bush,
  The uneasy wren
  Fluttering from ash to birch
  And back again.

  Milkwort on its low stem,
  Spread hawthorn tree,
  Sunlight patching the wood,
  A hive-bound bee....

  Girls riding nim-nim-nim,
  Ladies, trot-trot,
  Gentlemen hard at gallop,
  Shouting, steam-hot.

  Now over the rough turf
  Bridles go jingle,
  And there's a well-loved pool,
  By Fox's Dingle,

  Where Sweetheart, my brown mare,
  Old Glory's daughter,
  May loll her leathern tongue
  In snow-cool water.

© Robert Graves