Here is a spooky little poem by John Masefield… it seems so charming and pretty, “I went into the fields, but you were there waiting for me, so all the summer flowers were only glimpses of your starry powers…” and then it becomes a little sad, that by the waters he hears a bird singing “with your voice”… and then the shivery bit creeps in “…so that my being felt you to the bones”. Looking back at the first line again, maybe the ‘but‘ was a give-away!
I hadn’t read this before, and how I would have liked to use it when I was teaching, my students certainly would have enjoyed getting to grips with it!
I went into the fields, but you were there
Waiting for me, so all the summer flowers
Were only glimpses of your starry powers,
Beautiful and inspired dust they were.
I went down by the waters, and a bird
Sang with your voice in all the unknown tones
Of all that self of you I have not heard,
So that my being felt you to the bones.
I went into my house, and shut the door
To be alone, but you were there with me;
All beauty in a little room may be
Though the roof lean and muddy be the floor.
Then in my bed I bound my tired eyes
To make a darkness for my weary brain,
But like a presence you were there again,
Being and real, beautiful and wise,
So that I could not sleep and cried aloud,
“You strange grave thing, what is it you would say?”
The redness of your dear lips dimmed to grey,
The waters ebbed, the moon hid in a cloud.
Lois Elsden 