Jan Struther Poems

Whose thoughtfulness provides the soil
Wherein a poet's restless toil
May raise, through drought and frost and showers,
His kittle and refractory flowers:
...

Love her better, if you must.
I, who did with open eyes
My precious only heart entrust
To the uncounted jeopardies
...

NOT for the springing step, the cheek unlined,
The bright hair, the sinews undefeated,
The vigour unspent, the wealth of days remaining,
...

While I am young, and have not yet forsworn
Valour for comfort, truth for compromise,
I write these words to you, the unknown, unborn
Child of the child that in this cradle lies:
...

'Summer Time Ends.'
You need but turn a leaf
In this small book, whose brief
Laconic notes make up
...

Caught, caught is the wild cuckoo
That sang among the flowers;
They have prisoned him in a dark prison
To count them the hours.
...

AUTHORITY, with white-gloved hand,
Holds up the traffic in the Strand.
Obediently each well-trained wheel
Rolls to a standstill. I can feel
...

WHOSE love's a broad highway
That stretches boldly on
Before them all the day,
White and smooth in the sun-
...

TO lay down at last the burden of a fruitless love
Is to know miraculous lightness, to ease chafed shoulder,
Relax strung sinews, straighten the long-bowed back.
...

Dear, if some god (lonely in Paradise
And jealous of my two-fold ecstasy)
Were to demand one half as sacrifice-
My love for you, or else your love for me:
...