“A Lonely Place” by Edward Shanks

A Lonely Place

The leafless trees, the untidy stack
Last rainy summer raised in haste,
Watch the sky turn from fair to black
And watch the river fill and waste;

But never a footstep comes to trouble
The sea-gulls in the new-sown corn,
Or pigeons rising from late stubble
And flashing lighter as they turn.

Or if a footstep comes, 'tis mine
Sharp on the road or soft on grass:
Silence divides along my line
And shuts behind me as I pass.

[...]


Edward Shanks' poem "A Lonely Place" was published in the Georgian Poetry 1920-1922. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link below:

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