Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LONDON FEAST, by ERNEST RHYS Poet's Biography First Line: O where do you go, and what's your will Last Line: "of london feast." Alternate Author Name(s): Rhys, Ernest Percival Subject(s): London | ||||||||
O WHERE do you go, and what's your will, My sunburnt herdsmen of the hill, That leave your herds no pastoral priest, And take the road where, sad and dun, The smoke-cloud drapes the April sun? -- "We go to taste Of London feast." O country-lads, this April tide, Why do you leave the country-side? The new-come Spring stirs bird and beast; The winter storm is over now, And melted the December snow: -- "We go to taste Of London feast!" O village maidens, April girls, With dancing eyes and country curls, Is April naught, the maypole ceased That you must leave the daisied places That painted all your pretty faces? -- "We go to taste Of London feast." And ancient dalesmen of the north, That leave your dales, and the sweet brown earth, Are country acres so decreased, And Cumbrian fells no longer ringing With bleating lambs, and blackbirds singing? -- "We go to taste Of London feast." O sailor lads, that love the sea, Are you, too, of this company? -- The shifting wind's no longer east; Yet you have put the helm about, To come ashore, and join the rout? -- "We go to taste Of London feast." Too late, my golden mariners! I have seen there these many years, How Most grew more, and less grew Least; And now you go too late; the board Cannot one crumb to you afford: You cannot taste Of London feast. Too late, dear children of the sun; For London Feast is past and gone! I sat it out, and now released Make westward from its weary gate. Fools and unwise, you are too late: You cannot taste Of London feast. They did not heed, they would not stay; I saw the dust on London way By denser thousands still increased: My cry was vain. As they went by Their murmur ran, for all reply: -- "We go to taste Of London feast." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WHARF ON THAMES-SIDE: WINTER DAWN by LAURENCE BINYON THE IDLER'S CALENDAR: MAY. THE LONDON SEASON by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT A LONDON THOROUGHFARE, 2 A.M. by AMY LOWELL SPRING WIND IN LONDON by KATHERINE MANSFIELD A BALLAD OF WHITECHAPEL by ISAAC ROSENBERG LONDON, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by ERNEST RHYS |
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