POEM: THE SKYLARK

“It is the skylark come.” For shame!

Robert-a-Cockney is thy name:

Robert-a-Field would surely know

That skylarks, bless them, never go!

Love of my life, bear witness here

How we have heard them all the year;

How to the skylark's song are set

The days we never can forget.

At Rustington, do you remember?

We heard the skylarks in December;

In January above the snow

They sang to us by Hurstmonceux

Once in the keenest airs of March

We heard them near the Marble Arch;

Their April song thrilled Tonbridge air;

May found them singing everywhere;

And oh, in Sheppey, how their tune

Rhymed with the bean-flower scent in June.

One unforgotten day at Rye

They sang a love-song in July;

In August, hard by Lewes town,

They sang of joy‘ twixt sky and down;

And in September's golden spell

We heard them singing on Scaw Fell.

October's leaves were brown and sere,

But skylarks sang by Teston Weir;

And in November, at Mount's Bay,

They sang upon our wedding day!

Mr. - a-Field, go forth, go forth,

Go east and west and south and north;

You'll always find the furze in flower,

Find every hour the lovers’ hour,

And, by my faith in love and rhyme,

The skylark singing all the time!