Cold and chill

By Langley Bush I roam, but the bush hath left its hill,
On Cowper Green I stray, tis a desert strange and chill,
And the spreading Lea Close oak, ere decay had penned its will,
To the axe of the spoiler and self-interest fell a prey,
And Crossberry Way and old Round Oak's narrow lane
With its hollow trees like pulpits I shall never see again,
Enclosure like a Buonaparte let not a thing remain,
It levelled every bush and tree and levelled every hill
And hung the moles for traitors--though the brook is running still
It runs a sicker brook, cold and chill.

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Lawless floods

In solitudes where no frequented paths
But what thine own foot makes betray thine home
Stealing obtrusive there
To meditate thy end

& meadow pools torn wide by lawless floods
Where waterlilies spread their oily leaves
On which as wont the fly
Oft battens in the sun

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Deliciousness of solitude

 Now almost hid in trees a little gate

 Cheats us into the darkness of the wood 

 We almost think the day is wearing late 

 So dreamy is the light that dwells around 

 & so refreshing is its sombre mood 

 We feel at once shut out from sun & sky 

 All the deliciousness of solitude 

 While sauntering noisless oer the leafy ground 

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from October

Crows from the oak trees qawking as they spring 

Dashing the acorns down wi beating wing

Waking the woodlands sleep in noises low

Pattring on crimpt brakes withering brown below

While from their hollow nest the squirrels (pop)

A down the tree to pick them as they drop

The  starnel crowds that dim the muddy light

The crows and jackdaws flapping home at night

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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd

Solitude in cities

Abscence in love is worse than any fate
Summer is winter’s desert & the spring
Is like a ruined city desolate
Joy dies & hope retires on feeble wing
Nature sinks heedless — birds unheeded sing
‘Tis solitude in cities — crowds all move
Like living death — though all to life still cling
The strongest bitterest thing that life can prove
Is womans undisguise of hate & love

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Wild sorceress

Wild sorceress me thy restless mood delights
More than the stir of summers crowded scenes
Where jostled in the din
Joy palled my ear with song
Heart-sickening for the silence that is thine
Not broken inharmoniously as now
That lone & vagrant bee
Booms faint with weary chime

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So snugly dry

O happy couple happy pair

Your little cottage fills mine eye

With longing wishes to be there

From wind & rain so snugly dry

But other scenes suround thy spot

Scenes in childhood vallued dear

Nor shall they ever be forgot

While life remains—or hope can cheer

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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd