Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TAKING AWAY THE BANKING, by WILBERT SNOW Poet's Biography First Line: When march winds carried prophecies of june Last Line: When all the hills of god kept holiday. Alternate Author Name(s): Snow, Charles Wilber Subject(s): Farm Life; Spring; Agriculture; Farmers | ||||||||
When March winds carried prophecies of June, We all went out and worked till afternoon To take the spruce-limb banking off, and filled The air with shouts, heaping what soon would be A bonfire blazing by the willow-tree. We tugged at big ends of the bottom brush, The small ends as reluctant to let go As winter was himself, although the rush Of warmth, once started, was an overflow Of sunny days, blue-birds, and brooklets racing Like children from worn mothers, tired of chasing. We found that spring already underneath Had started on its work, the light-brown grasses Were flaunting spots of green, the little teeth Of mice and snouts of worms had chisled passes -- Worms we sent wiggling as a tempting cud For hungry flounders coming out of mud. O there were ugly days enough to come, With rain and sleet and April fluffs of snow, Big winds that moaned and made the wires hum, And neighbors calling out, "We told you so"; But looking on it now I think the days We coaxed the spring along, and felt the rays Of March intensify the balsam smell In those green boughs, and saw the underpinning Exposed once more, and children run pell-mell To hunt for crocuses, set fancies spinning More rapidly than blooming hours of May When all the hills of God kept holiday. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...KICKING THE LEAVES by DONALD HALL THE FARMER'S BOY: WINTER by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD THE FARMER'S BOY: SPRING by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD THE FARMER'S BOY: SUMMER by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD THE FARMER'S BOY: AUTUMN by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD ADVICE TO A CLAM-DIGGER; AN AMERICAN GEORGIC by WILBERT SNOW |
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