Cicely Fox Smith Poems

A rough old nut,
A tough old nut
Of a skipper:
But the right stuff,
...

Across the plain the daylight dies,
Where in red pomp the sun went down:
A lone star climbs the darkening skies
Above the smoke of town.
...

Wake, little Waxy! Hunting-time again,
The short days and goodly, the clean Autumn rain:
In the old North country, in the grey open weather,
...

Long before the Mammoth died in the ice and snow,
Master Brocky made his earth snug and warm below.
...

All Hallows Eve - when ghosts do walk the earth:
All Hallows Eve - O light and fireside mirth!
Ah, leave the gay revel and the merry din,
...

I rather think they built her in some good old-fashioned yard
That smelt of pitch and sawdust and of hemp rope newly tarred,
...

Shipmates o' mine, are you sleeping fair an' sound,
Mates fair an' foul, friend an' foe,
Lyin' where lost ships are, sunken deep an' drowned
...

Swiftly along these woodland ways,
Where squirrels scud and thrushes sing,
From the long trance of wintry days
Wakes the warm heart of spring.
...

I know it's only dreaming, and it never may be more,
But I'm thinking, as I have done many and many a time before,
...

O none may share the sorrow,
And none may break the spell,
For I ha' crost the weird water
An' drunk o' Weeping Well
...