Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MISUNDERSTANDINGS, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MISUNDERSTANDINGS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the bright shallow of this broadened dyke
Last Line: But to her frost-cold eggs she ne'er returned.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): England; Landscape; English


IN the bright shallow of this broadened dyke,
Whose willow-wood, late chopt, gives now
Not one sweet shading bough,
See in the sun the two young mating pike
With golden strakes and dapplings fine
In mutual love themselves align;
Where he and she together bask and dream,
There is no time but that, no other theme.

The flooded river hurled and flurried hoarse
With lashing branches and brown scum,
And yet the time was come.
These following love up a still lonely course
Reached their imagined bower, nor knew
The dwindled river far withdrew.
And now in unsuspicious love they lie
In the bright prison where they soon must die.

The mild wood-pigeon looked, and look she might
For last year's willow-wood: 'twas gone!
She rose and floated on
To one near by; and there in April light,
Her thin twigs set, sat warming two
Sweet eggs, that shone like roses through.
Man came, she startled; he but looked and learned,
But to her frost-cold eggs she ne'er returned.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net