Our Sussex Downs

Our Sussex Downs written by William Henry Davies

From "The Hour of Magic", 1922

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My youth is gone - my youth that laughed and yawned
In one sweet breath, and will not come again;
And crumbs of wonder are my scanty fare,
Snatched from the beauty on a hill or plain.
So, as I look, I wonder if the land
Has breathed those shadows in the waters blue!
From all first sounds I half expect to hear,
Not only echoes, but their echoes too.
But when I see - the first time in my life -
Our Sussex Downs, so mighty, strong and bare
That many a wood of fifteen hundred trees
Seems but a handful scattered lightly there -
'What a great hour,' think I, 'half-way 'twixt Death
And Youth that laughs and yawns in one short breath,'

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.