Of Greatham

(To those who live there)     For peace, than knowledge more desirable,      Into your Sussex quietness I came,     When summer's green and gold and azure fell      Over the world in flame.     And peace upon your pasture-lands I found,      Where grazing flocks drift on continually,     As little clouds that travel with no sound      Across a windless sky.     Out of your oaks the birds call to their mates      That brood among the pines, where hidden deep     From curious eyes a world's adventure waits      In columned choirs of sleep.     Under the calm ascension of the night      We heard the mellow lapsing and return     Of night-owls purring in their groundling flight      Through lanes of darkling fern.     Unbroken peace when all the stars were drawn      Back to their lairs of light, and ranked along     From shire to shire the downs out of the dawn      Were risen in golden song.             *        *        *        *        *     I sing of peace who have known the large unrest      Of men bewildered in their travelling,     And I have known the bridal earth unblest      By the brigades of spring.     I have known that loss. And now the broken thought     Of nations marketing in death I know,     The very winds to threnodies are wrought     That on your downlands blow.     I sing of peace. Was it but yesterday     I came among your roses and your corn?     Then momently amid this wrath I pray     For yesterday reborn.