Saddle room songs and hunting ballads

Chapter 5: THE BLACK FROST HAS BROKEN AT LAST.

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About This Book

A collection of short poems and ballads celebrating fox hunting, racing, and stable life in the countryside. The verse alternates exuberant hunt choruses and breathless race scenes with quieter, nostalgic pieces about an empty loose-box, an old saddle being sold, and a cab horse's recollections. Multiple voices—riders, whippers-in, grooms, and onlookers—convey camaraderie, sport, and affection for horses using lively rhythms, onomatopoeic calls, and direct narrative detail. Overall the poems register the pleasures and rituals of country sport alongside wistful memory and affectionate portraiture of animals.

THE BLACK FROST HAS BROKEN AT LAST.

The black frost has broken at last,

The days of our sadness have passed,

The warm rain is falling so soft on the ground:

Here’s a health to the horse,

Here’s a health to the hound,

Here’s a health to the hunting horn’s glorious sound,

And we meet at the squire’s i’ the morning.

Ye skaters away with your skates,

The Ice-King hath ended his fêtes,

Put your skates in your cupboards and fasten the locks,

And bring out your hunters

From stall and from box,

For once more we’ll go hunting the little red fox,

And we meet at the squire’s i’ the morning.