Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FRITILLARIES, FR. THE LAND, by VICTORIA MARY SACKVILLE-WEST


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FRITILLARIES, FR. THE LAND, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: But once I went through the lanes, over the sharp
Last Line: And the lapwings crying free above the plough.
Alternate Author Name(s): Nicholson, Harold, Mrs.; Sackville-west, Vita
Subject(s): England; Nature; English


But once I went through the lanes, over the sharp
Tilt of the little bridges; past the forge,
And heard the clang of anvil and iron,
And saw the founting sparks in the dusky forge,
And men outside with horses, gossiping.
So I came through that April England, moist
And green in its lush fields between the willows,
Foaming with cherry in the woods, and pale
With clouds of lady's-smock along the hedge,
Until I came to a gate and left the road
For the gentle fields that enticed me, by the farms,
Wandering through the embroidered fields, each one
So like its fellow; wandered through the gaps,
Past the mild cattle knee-deep in the brooks,
And wandered drowsing as the meadows drowsed
Under the pale wide heaven and slow clouds.
And then I came to a field where the springing grass
Was dulled by the hanging cups of fritillaries,
Sullen and foreign-looking, the snaky flower,
Scarfed in dull purple, like Egyptian girls
Camping among the furze, staining the waste
With foreign colour, sulky—dark and quaint,
Dangerous too, as a girl might sidle up,
An Egyptian girl, with an ancient snaring spell,
Throwing a net, soft round the limbs and heart,
Captivity soft and abhorrent, a close-meshed net,
—See the square web on the murrey flesh of the flower—
Holding her captive close with her bare brown arms.
Close to her little breast beneath the silk,
A gipsy Judith, witch of a ragged tent,
And I sank from the English field of fritillaries
Before it should be too late, before I forgot
The cherry white in the woods, and the curdled clouds,
And the lapwings crying free above the plough.





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