Orchard and Vineyard

ORCHARD AND VINEYARD

V. SACKVILLE-WEST LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LTD., VIGO ST., W. NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXXI TO—— Printed in Great Britain by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh
Some of these poems have already appeared in The London Mercury , The Observer , Country Life , The Woman’s Leader , The Anglo-French Review ; to the editors of these papers I am indebted for permission to republish.
V. S.-W.

ALL her youth is gone, her beautiful youth outworn, Daughter of tarn and tor, the moors that were once her home No longer know her step on the upland tracks forlorn Where she was wont to roam.
All her hounds are dead, her beautiful hounds are dead, That paced beside the hoofs of her high and nimble horse, Or streaked in lean pursuit of the tawny hare that fled Out of the yellow gorse.
All her lovers have passed, her beautiful lovers have passed, The young and eager men that fought for her arrogant hand, And the only voice which endures to mourn for her at the last Is the voice of the lonely land.

HE sat among the shadows lost, And heard the careless voice speak on Of life when he was gone from home, Of days that he had made his own, Familiar schemes that he had known, And dates that he had cherished most As star-points in the year to come, And he was suddenly alone, Thinking (not bitterly, But with a grave regret) that he Was in that room a ghost.