William H. Davies (1871–1940)

YES, I will spend the livelong day

With Nature in this month of May;

And sit beneath the trees, and share

My bread with birds whose homes are there;

While cows lie down to eat, and sheep

Stand to their necks in grass so deep;

While birds do sing with all their might,

As though they felt the earth in flight.

This is the hour I dream’d of, when

I sat surrounded by poor men;

And thought of how the Arab sat

Alone at evening, gazing at

The stars that bubbled in clear skies;

And of young dreamers, when their eyes

Enjoy’d methought a precious boon

In the adventures of the Moon

Whose light, behind the Clouds’ dark bars,

Search’d for her stolen flocks of stars.

When I, hemm’d in by wrecks of men,

Thought of some lonely cottage then,

Full of sweet books; and miles of sea,

With passing ships, in front of me;

And having, on the other hand,

A flowery, green, bird-singing land.