Where bellwires tremble intermittently
and maids ran round the tradesmen's door to chat,
past sills where the old stables mouser sat,
and waxen, oily cooking-apples glowed
green and russet from stone and boarded floors
in cellars accessible from out of doors,
where bantams pecked at a dried loaf, where kail
heeled in, held its vigil of earthy produce
and early a peacock sunned his golden tail,
where always wrens and pigeons filled the ivy
and beds held marigold and thyme and sage,
in stepped grey rockeries made by a recluse
loitering among hummocks, typical of his age,
in the half-wrekcved gazebo served by bees,
snails eat the remaining saxifrage.
(1997)
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem