And when, at
Escaped,-so many a green slope built on
Betwixt me and the enemy's house behind,
I dared to rest, or wander,-like a
Made sweeter for the step upon the grass,-And view the ground's most gentle dimplement,(As if God's finger touched but did not
In making England!) such an up and
Of verdure,-nothing too much up or down,
A ripple of land; such little hills, the
Can stoop to tenderly and the wheatfields climb;
Such nooks of valleys, lined with orchises,
Fed full of noises by invisible streams;
And open pastures, where you scarcely
White daisies from white dew,-at
The mythic oaks and elm-trees standing
Self-poised upon their prodigy of shade,-I thought my father's land was worthy
Of being my Shakspeare's.
Very oft alone,
Unlicensed; not unfrequently with
To walk the third with Romney and his
The rising painter,
Vincent Carrington,
Whom men judge hardly, as bee-bonneted,
Because he holds that, paint a body well,
You paint a soul by implication,
The grand first Master.
Pleasant walks! for
He said . . 'When I was last in Italy' . .
It sounded as an instrument that's
Too far off for the tune-and yet it's
To listen.
Often we walked only two,
If cousin Romney pleased to walk with me.
We read, or talked, or quarrelled, as it chanced;
We were not lovers, nor even friends well-matched-Say rather, scholars upon different tracks,
And thinkers disagreed; he,
Of what is, and I, haply,
For what might be.
But then the thrushes sang,
And shook my pulses and the elms' new leaves,-And then I turned, and held my finger up,
And bade him mark that, howsoe'er the
Went ill, as he related,
The thrushes still sang in it.-At which
His brow would soften,-and he bore with
In melancholy patience, not unkind,
While, breaking into voluble ecstasy,
I flattered all the beauteous country round,
As poets use . . .the skies, the clouds, the fields,
The happy violets hiding from the
The primroses run down to, carrying gold,-The tangled hedgerows, where the cows push
Impatient horns and tolerant churning mouths'Twixt dripping ash-boughs,-hedgerows all
With birds and gnats and large white
Which look as if the May-flower had sought
And palpitated forth upon the wind,-Hills, vales, woods, netted in a silver mist,
Farms, granges, doubled up among the hills,
And cattle grazing in the watered vales,
And cottage-chimneys smoking from the woods,
And cottage-gardens smelling everywhere,
Confused with smell of orchards. 'See,' I said,'And see! is God not with us on the earth?
This extract from a much larger work is taken from the anthology "The Open Road" by E.
V.
Lucas [Methuen 1931] page 53, 54
