EUGENE PARKER CHASE(MAGDALEN)ON SUSSEX DOWNSA boystood on the windy Sussex downs,Resting a moment in his lonely walkTo gaze at the fresh fields, and their neighbour townsSunk in the valleys watered by thin streamsAnd sheltered by the pallid hills of chalk.It seemed a land for slow and leisured dreams,For fantasy, vague and cool as the mist.The church there in the field, with yew-trees roundShould send across the air a silver soundOf holy bells. The loud rooks should desistA moment from their cawing; the dim sunBrighten his face, the rounded meadows glisten,And all the windswept grassy hillsides listenAnd then take up the sound the bells begun.Slowly, at length, rounding the hill, a white,Long, slender, floating airship flies.It, of this quiet landscape, is the sightMost peaceful—white splash on the blue spring skies.It passes over the church-crowned slope, it blendsIts whiteness for a moment with the cloud,And finally, with nose a little bowed,Off towards the distant sea its course it bends.The watching boy beheld no other changeIn all the placid, comfortable scene,And yet he deeply realized what meanThe airships and the other things that are strange,But form a living part of England now;And when he left the place where he had been,He seemed to have become a man somehow.
EUGENE PARKER CHASE(MAGDALEN)
EUGENE PARKER CHASE(MAGDALEN)
A boystood on the windy Sussex downs,Resting a moment in his lonely walkTo gaze at the fresh fields, and their neighbour townsSunk in the valleys watered by thin streamsAnd sheltered by the pallid hills of chalk.It seemed a land for slow and leisured dreams,For fantasy, vague and cool as the mist.The church there in the field, with yew-trees roundShould send across the air a silver soundOf holy bells. The loud rooks should desistA moment from their cawing; the dim sunBrighten his face, the rounded meadows glisten,And all the windswept grassy hillsides listenAnd then take up the sound the bells begun.Slowly, at length, rounding the hill, a white,Long, slender, floating airship flies.It, of this quiet landscape, is the sightMost peaceful—white splash on the blue spring skies.It passes over the church-crowned slope, it blendsIts whiteness for a moment with the cloud,And finally, with nose a little bowed,Off towards the distant sea its course it bends.The watching boy beheld no other changeIn all the placid, comfortable scene,And yet he deeply realized what meanThe airships and the other things that are strange,But form a living part of England now;And when he left the place where he had been,He seemed to have become a man somehow.
A boystood on the windy Sussex downs,Resting a moment in his lonely walkTo gaze at the fresh fields, and their neighbour townsSunk in the valleys watered by thin streamsAnd sheltered by the pallid hills of chalk.It seemed a land for slow and leisured dreams,For fantasy, vague and cool as the mist.The church there in the field, with yew-trees roundShould send across the air a silver soundOf holy bells. The loud rooks should desistA moment from their cawing; the dim sunBrighten his face, the rounded meadows glisten,And all the windswept grassy hillsides listenAnd then take up the sound the bells begun.Slowly, at length, rounding the hill, a white,Long, slender, floating airship flies.It, of this quiet landscape, is the sightMost peaceful—white splash on the blue spring skies.It passes over the church-crowned slope, it blendsIts whiteness for a moment with the cloud,And finally, with nose a little bowed,Off towards the distant sea its course it bends.The watching boy beheld no other changeIn all the placid, comfortable scene,And yet he deeply realized what meanThe airships and the other things that are strange,But form a living part of England now;And when he left the place where he had been,He seemed to have become a man somehow.
A boystood on the windy Sussex downs,Resting a moment in his lonely walkTo gaze at the fresh fields, and their neighbour townsSunk in the valleys watered by thin streamsAnd sheltered by the pallid hills of chalk.
A boystood on the windy Sussex downs,
Resting a moment in his lonely walk
To gaze at the fresh fields, and their neighbour towns
Sunk in the valleys watered by thin streams
And sheltered by the pallid hills of chalk.
It seemed a land for slow and leisured dreams,For fantasy, vague and cool as the mist.The church there in the field, with yew-trees roundShould send across the air a silver soundOf holy bells. The loud rooks should desistA moment from their cawing; the dim sunBrighten his face, the rounded meadows glisten,And all the windswept grassy hillsides listenAnd then take up the sound the bells begun.
It seemed a land for slow and leisured dreams,
For fantasy, vague and cool as the mist.
The church there in the field, with yew-trees round
Should send across the air a silver sound
Of holy bells. The loud rooks should desist
A moment from their cawing; the dim sun
Brighten his face, the rounded meadows glisten,
And all the windswept grassy hillsides listen
And then take up the sound the bells begun.
Slowly, at length, rounding the hill, a white,Long, slender, floating airship flies.It, of this quiet landscape, is the sightMost peaceful—white splash on the blue spring skies.It passes over the church-crowned slope, it blendsIts whiteness for a moment with the cloud,And finally, with nose a little bowed,Off towards the distant sea its course it bends.
Slowly, at length, rounding the hill, a white,
Long, slender, floating airship flies.
It, of this quiet landscape, is the sight
Most peaceful—white splash on the blue spring skies.
It passes over the church-crowned slope, it blends
Its whiteness for a moment with the cloud,
And finally, with nose a little bowed,
Off towards the distant sea its course it bends.
The watching boy beheld no other changeIn all the placid, comfortable scene,And yet he deeply realized what meanThe airships and the other things that are strange,But form a living part of England now;And when he left the place where he had been,He seemed to have become a man somehow.
The watching boy beheld no other change
In all the placid, comfortable scene,
And yet he deeply realized what mean
The airships and the other things that are strange,
But form a living part of England now;
And when he left the place where he had been,
He seemed to have become a man somehow.