A Day in Sussex

The dove did lend me wings. I fled away

From the loud world which long had troubled me.

Oh lightly did I flee when hoyden May

Threw her wild mantle on the hawthorn tree.

I left the dusty high road, and my way

Was through deep meadows, shut with copses fair.

A choir of thrushes poured its roundelay

From every hedge and every thicket there.

Mild, moon--faced kine looked on, where in the grass

All heaped with flowers I lay, from noon till eve.

And hares unwitting close to me did pass,

And still the birds sang, and I could not grieve.

Oh what a blessed thing that evening was!

Peace, music, twilight, all that could deceive

A soul to joy or lull a heart to peace.

It glimmers yet across whole years like these.