Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. 1918.

47. A Wanderer

WHEN Watkin shifts the burden of his cares

And all that irked him in his bound employ,

Once more become a vagrom-hearted boy,

He moves to roundelays and jocund airs;

Loitering with dusty harvestmen, he shares

Old ale and sunshine; or, with maids half-coy,

Pays court to shadows; fools himself with joy,

Shaking a leg at junketings and fairs.

Sometimes, returning down his breezy miles,

A snatch of wayward April he will bring,

Piping the daffodilly that beguiles

Foolhardy lovers in the surge of spring.

And then once more by lanes and field-path stiles

Up the green world he wanders like a king.