free-verse51 lines
The Woodlark
by Gerard Manley HopkinsTeevo cheetio cheevio chee:
O where, what can th't be?
Weedio-weedio: there again!
So tiny a trickle of s'ng-strain;
And all round not to be found
For brier, bough, furrow, or gr'en ground
Before or behind or far or at hand
Either left either right
Anywhere in the s'nlight.
Well, after all! Ah but hark -
'I am the little woodlark.
. . . . . . .
To-day the sky is two and two
With white strokes and strains of the blue
. . . . . . .
Round a ring, around a ring
And while I sail (must listen) I sing
. . . . . . .
The skylark is my cousin and he
Is known to men more than me
. . . . . . .
. . . when the cry within
Says Go on then I go on
Till the longing is less and the good gone
But down drop, if it says Stop,
To the all-a-leaf of the tr'etop
And after that off the bough
. . . . . . .
I 'm so v'ry, O s' very glad
That I d' th'nk there is not to be had . . .
. . . . . . .
The blue wheat-acre is underneath
And the braided ear breaks out of the sheath,
The ear in milk, lush the sash,
And crush-silk poppies aflash,
The blood-gush blade-gash
Flame-rash rudred
Bud shelling or broad-shed
Tatter-tassel-tangled and dingle-a-dangled
Dandy-hung dainty head.
. . . . . . .
And down ... the furrow dry
Sunspurge and oxeye
And laced-leaved lovely
Foam-tuft fumitory
. . . . . . .
Through the velvety wind V-winged
To the nest's nook I balance and buoy
With a sweet joy of a sweet joy,
Sweet, of a sweet, of a sweet joy
Of a sweet - a sweet - sweet - joy.'