Up on the downs the red-eyed kestrels hover,
Eyeing the grass.
The field-mouse flits like a shadow into cover
As their shadows pass.
Men are burning the gorse on the down's shoulder;
A drift of smoke
Glitters with fire and hangs, and the skies smoulder,
And the lungs choke.
Once the tribe did thus on the downs, on these downs burning
Men in the frame.
Crying to the gods of the downs till their brains were turning
And the gods came.
And to-day on the downs, in the wind, the hawks, the grasses,
In blood and air,
Something passes me and cries as it passes.
On the chalk downland bare.
John Masefield (1878 - 1967) England
I really love this poem and have passed it on to many people who were aware of Masefield but had never come across this one. I think of it as I walk the dog on the downs at Blewbury.
ReplyDeleteGreat haunting eerie poem. A tale of human sacrifice in England.
ReplyDelete‘And the gods came’. Chilling.