Front matter (continued 2)

Burning like eyes so calm, so unafraid,

On all that God has given and man has made.

Burning they watch, and mothlike owls come out,

The redbreast warbles shrilly once and stops;

The homing cowman gives his dog a shout,

The lamps are lighted in the village shops.

Silence; the last bird passes; in the copse

The hazels cross the moon, a nightjar spins,

Dew wets the grass, the nightingale begins.

Singing her crazy song the mother goes,

Singing as though her heart were full of peace,

Moths knock the petals from the dropping rose,

Stars make the glimmering pool a golden fleece,

The moon droops west, but still she does not cease,

The little mice peep out to hear her sing,

Until the inn-man's cockerel shakes his wing.

And in the sunny dawns of hot Julys,

The labourers going to meadow see her there.

Rubbing the sleep out of their heavy eyes,

They lean upon the parapet to stare;

They see her plaiting basil in her hair,

Basil, the dark red wound-wort, cops of clover,

The blue self-heal and golden Jacks of Dover.

Dully they watch her, then they turn to go

To that high Shropshire upland of late hay;

Her singing lingers with them as they mow,

And many times they try it, now grave, now gay,

Till, with full throat, over the hills away,

They lift it clear; oh, very clear it towers

Mixed with the swish of many falling flowers.

'The Widow in the Bye Street' first appeared in The English Review for February 1912. I thank the editor and proprietors of the Review for permitting me to reprint it here.

The persons and events described in the poem are entirely imaginary, and no reference is made or intended to any living person.

JOHN MASEFIELD. 10*th May* 1912.

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