Near and Far (Blunden)/Familiarity
MOODS, CONJECTURES, AND FANCIES
Familiarity
Dance not your spectral dance at me;
I know you well!
Along this lane there lives no tree
But I can tell.
I know each fall and rise and twist;
You—why, a wildflower in the mist,
The moon, the mist.
I know you well!
Along this lane there lives no tree
But I can tell.
I know each fall and rise and twist;
You—why, a wildflower in the mist,
The moon, the mist.
Sound not that long alarm, gray tower,
I know you well;
This is your habit at this hour,
You and your bell!
If once, I heard a hundred times
Through evening's ambuscade your chimes—
Dark tower, your chimes.
I know you well;
This is your habit at this hour,
You and your bell!
If once, I heard a hundred times
Through evening's ambuscade your chimes—
Dark tower, your chimes.
Enforce not that no-meaning so,
Familiar stream;
Whether you tune it high or low,
I know your theme;
A proud-fed but a puny rill,
A meadow brook, poured quick and shrill—
Alone and shrill.
Familiar stream;
Whether you tune it high or low,
I know your theme;
A proud-fed but a puny rill,
A meadow brook, poured quick and shrill—
Alone and shrill.
Sprawl not so monster-like, blind mist;
I know not "seems";
I am too old a realist
To take sea-dreams
From you, or think a great white Whale
Floats through our hawthorn-scented vale—
This foam-cold vale.
I know not "seems";
I am too old a realist
To take sea-dreams
From you, or think a great white Whale
Floats through our hawthorn-scented vale—
This foam-cold vale.