High summer

Apparently Ebenezer Jones is an uneven poet in that sometimes he is good and sometimes he is… well to put it kindly, not good. He was an English poet although he had Welsh heritage, and e was born in 1820, died only forty years later. He was a friend and contemporary of Browning and Rossetti and to be honest I had never come across him before until I was exploring more sonnets.

here is an appropriate sonnet for today, a lovely summer’s day:

High Summer

I never wholly feel that summer is high,
However green the trees, or loud the birds,
However movelessly eye-winking herds
Stand in field ponds, or under large trees lie,
Till I do climb all cultured pastures by,
That hedged by hedgerows studiously fretted trim,
Smile like a lady’s face with lace laced prim,
And on some moor or hill that seeks the sky
Lonely and nakedly,–utterly lie down,
And feel the sunshine throbbing on body and limb,
My drowsy brain in pleasant drunkenness swim,
Each rising thought sink back and dreamily drown,
Smiles creep o’er my face, and smother my lips, and cloy,
Each muscle sink to itself, and separately enjoy.

Ebenezer Jones