The Knighthood of the Countryside
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
Genteel, the hills of Oxfordshire are clothed
With farm fields at their feet, brocades of trees
On shoulders and their chests. The frost they loathed,
The snow and iceberg wind that tried to freeze
Slopes, have been thrown off, shrugged off by their leaves
And blossoms. Heights have put on chain mail made
Of limbs and branches. Trunks reset their greaves
Of bark, but then the redbud soon displayed
Insouciance of sturdy petals flashed
Against all harshness. Summer came and with
It autumn promises with scarlet splashed
With orange and gold as holy as a myth.
..Whatever woods and stately copses wear,
….They don it with a gentlemanly air.