Innocence
Where the evening moth alighted
In the meadow almost cut
And the honeybee was plundered
By the grey gull and the rook,
There, the child that gleaned the cockleweed
With hayrake and pitchfork
Saw Adonis racing barefoot
In the lanes between the swarth.
Meadowsweet and purple vetches
In the dogrose scented hedge
Where a tinker can was hidden
With an acrid drinking edge.
And the hoarsened cuckoo whispered
To the pipit in pursuit
Where the excess heat of Summer
Was the warmth of our youth.
In an Autumn evening meadow
Where the frost escaped the sun
And the pheasant ran from instinct
When he saw the prowler's gun,
There, the black fruit from the briar
Plucked in innocence he ate
As the child passed out of Eden
And Adam barred the gate.