Words

Out of us all That make rhymes Will you choose Sometimes - As the winds use A crack in a wall Or a drain,

Their joy or their pain To whistle through - Choose me,

You English words?

I know you:

You are light as dreams,

Tough as oak,

Precious as gold,

As poppies and corn,

Or an old cloak:

Sweet as our birds To the ear,

As the burnet rose In the heat Of Midsummer:

Strange as the races Of dead and unborn:

Strange and sweet Equally,

And familiar,

To the eye,

As the dearest faces That a man knows,

And as lost homes are:

But though older far Than oldest yew, - As our hills are, old, - Worn new Again and again:

Young as our streams After rain:

And as dear As the earth which you prove That we love.

Make me content With some sweetness From Wales Whose nightingales Have no wings, - From Wiltshire and Kent And Herefordshire, - And the villages there, - From the names, and the things No less.

Let me sometimes dance With you,

Or climb Or stand perchance In ecstasy,

Fixed and free In a rhyme,

As poets do.