Page:The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge, 1919.djvu/16

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Music and twilight: and the deep blue flow

Of water: and the watching fire of Mars.

The deep fish slipping through the moonlit bars

Make death a thing of sweet dreams,—"

What a Summer's evening is here.

And this is a Summer's night in a much longer poem that I have not included in this selection, a summer's night seen by two lovers:

And elsewhere he writes, giving us the mood and picture of Autumn in a single line:

With such simple scenes as this the book is full, giving nothing at all to those that look for a "message," but bringing a feeling of quiet from gleaming Irish evenings, a book to read between the Strand and Piccadilly Circus amidst the thunder and hootings.

To every poet is given the revelation of some living thing so intimate that he speaks, when he speaks of it, as an ambassador speaking for his sovereign; with Homer it was the heroes, with Ledwidge it is the small birds that sing, but in particular especially the blackbird, whose cause he champions against all other