When a Little Farm I Keep
When a Little Farm I Keep
Original Text
Katharine Tynan, Collected Poems (London: Macmillan, 1930): 142-43. 9720.d.402 Cambridge University Library
1When a little farm I keep,
3And my pretty lambs shall fold
4In deep pastures starred with gold.
5On green carpets they shall tread,
6Gold and purple be their bed,
7Honey clover make their food
8In a watered solitude.
9Garden places I shall tend,
10For a welcome to a friend,
11Make for him a roomy seat
13And my kitchen garden shall
14Grow me fruits on tree and wall,
15Give me blossoms in the sping
16And an autumn gathering.
18Where the pigeons fly and float,
19And a well so green and dim
20Where the little fishes swim.
21Hives of honey I shall own,
22Bees with drowsy monotone
23Toil all day to bring me home
25Twixt the mountains and the sea
26There my little farm will be.
27In a heart-remembered spot
28I shall have my happy lot.
29In a heart-remembered place,
30Where the mountains lift their face,
31I shall tend my sheep and kine,
32And a thankful heart be mine.
33When a little farm I keep,
34I shall sleep the happiest sleep,
35To my simple meals invite
36Thanksgiving and appetite.
37In the heart-remembered place
38I shall wear a shining face,
39And my quiet nights be praise,
40And a prayer my innocent days.
Notes
2] kine: cattle. Back to Line
12] box: "genus (Buxus) of small evergreen trees or shrubs ... specially B. sempervirens, theCommon or Evergreen Box-tree, a native of Europe and Asia; a shrub with deep-green leaves of a thick leathery texture" (OED "box," sb. 1, 1).privet: "bushy evergreen shrub, Ligustrum vulgare ... having elliptic-lanceolatesmooth dark-green leaves, and clusters of small white flowers, succeeded by small shining black berries; much used for garden hedges" (OED, "Privet," sb. 1, 1). Back to Line
17] cote: small cottage. Back to Line
24] gloam: dusk. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1905
Publication Notes
Tynan's Innocencies: A Book of Verse (1905).
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
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