I. VASHTI'S SONG <br /> <br /> <br />Over the rim of the Moor, <br />And under the starry sky, <br />Two men came to my door <br />And rested them thereby. <br /> <br />Beneath the bough and the star, <br />In a whispering foreign tongue, <br />They talked of a land afar <br />And the merry days so young! <br /> <br />Beneath the dawn and the bough <br />I heard them arise and go: <br />And my heart it is aching now <br />For the more it will never know. <br /> <br />Why did they two depart <br />Before I could understand? <br />Where lies that land, O my heart? <br />-O my heart, where lies that land? <br /> <br />II. SATURN <br /> <br /> <br />From my farm, from hèr farm <br />Furtively we came. <br />In either home a hearth was warm: <br />We nursed a hungrier flame. <br /> <br />Our feet were foul with mire, <br />Our faces blind with mist; <br />But all the night was naked fire <br />About us where we kiss'd. <br /> <br />To her farm, to my farm, <br />Loathing we returned; <br />Pale beneath a gallow's arm <br />The planet Saturn burned. <br /> <br />III. DERELICTION <br /> <br /> <br />O'er the tears that we shed, dear <br />The bitter vines twist, <br />And the hawk and the red deer <br />They keep where we kiss'd: <br />All broken lies the shieling <br />That sheltered from rain, <br />With a star to pierce the ceiling, <br />And the dawn an empty pane. <br /> <br />Thro' the mist, up the moorway, <br />Fade hunters and pack; <br />From the ridge to thy doorway <br />Happy voices float back… <br />O, between the threads o' mist, love, <br />Reach your hands from the house. <br />Only mind that we kiss'd, love, <br />And forget the broken vows!<br /><br />Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/exmoor-verses/
