Back To The Land

Out in the upland places,
    I see both dale and down,
And the ploughed earth with open scores
    Turning the green to brown.

The bare bones of the country
    Lie gaunt in winter days,
Grim fastnesses of rock and scaur,
    Sure, while the year decays.

And, as the autumn withers,
    And the winds strip the tree,
The companies of buried folk
    Rise up and speak with me; -

From homesteads long forgotten,
    From graves by church and yew,
They come to walk with noiseless tread
    Upon the land they knew; -

Men who have tilled the pasture
    The writhen thorn beside,
Women within grey vanished walls
    Who bore and loved and died.

And when the great town closes
    Upon me like a sea,
Daylong, above its weary din,
    I hear them call to me.

Dead folk, the roofs are round me,
    To bar out field and hill,
And yet I hear you on the wind
    Calling and calling still;

And while, by street and pavement,
    The day runs slowly through,
My soul, across these haunted downs,
    Goes forth and walks with you.