Bread and Circuses

Chapter 90: TO A CHILD RETURNING HOME UPON A WINDY DAY

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About This Book

A lyrical collection of short poems ranges from quiet country scenes and childhood memories to urban sketches and religious reflections. The poet renders streams, gardens, market sellers, and domestic interiors in close sensory detail while pairing everyday observation with moral and spiritual meditation. Animal vignettes and playful pieces for children sit alongside elegies, prayers, and ironic portraits of modern life, producing tones of humour, tenderness, and solemnity. Varied forms and concise portraits move between pastoral lanes, London streets, and intimate household moments while attending to time, sorrow, and faith.

TO A CHILD RETURNING HOME
UPON A WINDY DAY

Prythee what mad contentments canst thou find, Rosy-cheeked Betsey, in this blust’rous wind Loved of thy Babyhood? Without the door His leaves as running footmen go before Thy lagging feet who with compliant grace Smilest, his kisses mantling on thy face.

Go back and bid him use while yet he may His favour brief and pre-determined day; Bear with his wooing, nor forbid him now Lift the light hair from thine untroubled brow, Whom thou shalt dub a churl, when thou art grown A woman, but for ruffling of thy gown.