Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. b. 1840820. St. Valentine’s Day
TO-DAY, all day, I rode upon the down, | |
With hounds and horsemen, a brave company | |
On this side in its glory lay the sea, | |
On that the Sussex weald, a sea of brown. | |
The wind was light, and brightly the sun shone, | 5 |
And still we gallop’d on from gorse to gorse: | |
And once, when check’d, a thrush sang, and my horse | |
Prick’d his quick ears as to a sound unknown. | |
I knew the Spring was come. I knew it even | |
Better than all by this, that through my chase | 10 |
In bush and stone and hill and sea and heaven | |
I seem’d to see and follow still your face. | |
Your face my quarry was. For it I rode, | |
My horse a thing of wings, myself a god. |