PLACES

Nobody says: Ah, that is the place

Where chanced, in the hollow of years ago,

What none of the Three Towns cared to know —

The birth of a little girl of grace -

The sweetest the house saw, first or last;

Yet it was so

On that day long past.

Nobody thinks: There, there she lay

In a room by the Hoe, like the bud of a flower,

And listened, just after the bedtime hour,

To the stammering chimes that used to play

The quaint Old Hundred-and-Thirteenth tune

In Saint Andrew's tower

Night, morn, and noon.

Nobody calls to mind that here

Upon Boterel Hill, where the carters skid,

With cheeks whose airy flush outbid

Fresh fruit in bloom, and free of fear,

She cantered down, as if she must fall

( Though she never did ),

To the charm of all.

Nay: one there is to whom these things,

That nobody else's mind calls back,

Have a savour that scenes in being lack,

And a presence more than the actual brings;

To whom to-day is beneaped and stale,

And its urgent clack

But a vapid tale.