how comely it was and how reviving, <br />When with clay and with death no longer striving <br />Down firm roads we came to houses <br />With women chattering and green grass thriving. <br /> <br />Now though rains in a cataract descended, <br />We could glow, with our tribulation ended-- <br />Count not days, the present only <br />Was thought of, how could it ever be expended? <br /> <br />Clad so cleanly, this remnant of poor wretches <br />Picked up life like the hens in orchard ditches, <br />Gazed on the mill-sails, heard the church-bell, <br />Found an honest glass all manner of riches. <br /> <br />How they crowded the barn with lusty laughter, <br />Hailed the pierrots and shook each shadowy rafter, <br />Even could ridicule their own sufferings, <br />Sang as though nothing but joy came after!<br /><br />Edmund Blunden<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/at-senlis-once/
