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A Walk in Bannington Preserve
It is a seed that’s best not planted
That grows within the shade
And in a lot long since abandoned
Near some New England glade.
The stolid soul which passes by
Appraising fresh the air
On age-old hillocks, flocks with all
The brightened leaves up there.
He contemplates completed lives
From vantage of the bough
And sees in fate a merriment
That moss stones will endow.
“The slightest turf might be a house,
The merest thought a course;
The wind does aught to whip a boat
Thus anchored to its course.”
But not for wind nor for the turf
His parcel left to be;
The builder of the granite fence
Threw out economy
And hills and plots and autumn leaves
For closure from the trial
And left his father’s woods behind
To trek the Earth-shorn mile.
That grows within the shade
And in a lot long since abandoned
Near some New England glade.
The stolid soul which passes by
Appraising fresh the air
On age-old hillocks, flocks with all
The brightened leaves up there.
He contemplates completed lives
From vantage of the bough
And sees in fate a merriment
That moss stones will endow.
“The slightest turf might be a house,
The merest thought a course;
The wind does aught to whip a boat
Thus anchored to its course.”
But not for wind nor for the turf
His parcel left to be;
The builder of the granite fence
Threw out economy
And hills and plots and autumn leaves
For closure from the trial
And left his father’s woods behind
To trek the Earth-shorn mile.
Sorry, had a busy weekend and didn't get time to vote or review before time ran out.
I take this that the seed not planted is the speaker himself, enabling him to wander instead of staying tied to home.
Mechanically, I only have a few small quibbles. The first stanza is the only one that uses female rhyme on the even lines, setting up the expectation that the rest will as well. It's often best to hold that kind of thing until later. But then it turns out not to be a rhyme. Planted/abandoned is enough of a slant rhyme that it seems to signal it was intended to be, then the rest of the stanzas don't rhyme those lines, so it again doesn't keep up what it appears to start. And you're experienced enough to know it's lazy to rhyme course with itself. A little of the rhythm is forced, but not much.
I take this that the seed not planted is the speaker himself, enabling him to wander instead of staying tied to home.
Mechanically, I only have a few small quibbles. The first stanza is the only one that uses female rhyme on the even lines, setting up the expectation that the rest will as well. It's often best to hold that kind of thing until later. But then it turns out not to be a rhyme. Planted/abandoned is enough of a slant rhyme that it seems to signal it was intended to be, then the rest of the stanzas don't rhyme those lines, so it again doesn't keep up what it appears to start. And you're experienced enough to know it's lazy to rhyme course with itself. A little of the rhythm is forced, but not much.