Fern+Hill

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs, About the lilting house, as happy as the grass was green, The night about dingle starry, Time let me hail and climb Golden heydeys of his eyes, And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves Trails with daisies and barley Down the rivers of the windfall night.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns About the happy yard, and singing as the barn was home, In the sun is young once only, Time let me play and be Golden in the mercy of his means, And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves. Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And the sbbath rang slowly <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In the pebbles of holy streams.

<span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">All the sun long it was running, it was lovely the hay <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Fields as high as the house, the tunes from chimneys, it was air <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And playing, lovely and watery <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And fire green as grass. <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And nightly under the simple stars <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Flying with the ricks, and the horses <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Flashing into the dark.

<span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Shining, it was Adam and maiden, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The sky gathered again <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And the sun grew round that very day. <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">So it must have been after the birth of the simple light <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Out of the whinnying green stable <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">On to the fields of praise.

<span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In the sun born over and over, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I ran my heedless ways, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">My wishes raced through the house high hay <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Before the children green and golden <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Follow him out of grace.

<span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In the moon that is always rising, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nor that riding to sleep <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I should hear him fly with the high fields <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means, <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Time held me green and dying <span style="color: #ff007e; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Though I sang in my chains like the sea.