Song: Love in the Open Air.

    I'll love you in the open air
        But stuffy rooms and blazing fires
    And mirrors with familiar stare
        Cloak and befoul my high desires.

    The dearest day that I have known
        Was in the fields, when driving rain
    Was like a veil around us thrown,
        A grey close veil without a stain.

    The young oak-tree was stripped and bare
        But naked twigs a shelter made,
    Where curious cows came round to stare
        And stood astonished and dismayed.

    Let it be rain or summer sun,
        Smell of wet earth or scent of flowers,
    Love, once more give me, give me one
        Of these enchanted lover's hours.

Edward Shanks

Edward Shanks was an English writer, poet, and novelist, known for his literary contributions during the early 20th century. Born on June 11, 1892, in London, Shanks attended Cambridge University where he was a member of the 'War Poets' of World War I. His works reflect the turmoil and changes of his time. Besides poetry, he wrote novels, essays, and book reviews, contributing significantly to English literature. He passed away on May 4, 1953.

Edward Shanks

A New Song about the Sea.

Edward Shanks, Simple Poetry

A Lonely Place

Edward Shanks, Simple Poetry

The Idyll.

Edward Shanks, Simple Poetry

At a Lecture.

Edward Shanks, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Song: Love's Close.

    Now spring comes round again
    With blossom on the tree,
    Dark blossom of the peach,
    Light blossom of the pear
    And amorous birds complain
    And nesting birds prepare
    And love's keen fingers reach
    After the heart of me.

    But now the blackthorn blows
    About the dusty lane
    And new buds peep and peer,
    I have no joy at all,
    For love draws near its close
    And love's white blossoms fall
    And in the springing year
    Love's fingers bring me pain.

Edward Shanks

Song: The Holiday.

    The world's great ways unclose
    Through little wooded hills:
        An air that stirs and stills,
    Dies sighing where it rose
    Or flies to sigh again
        In elms, whose stately rows
    Receive the summer rain,
    And clouds, clouds, clouds go by,
    A drifting cavalry,
    In squadrons that disperse
        And troops that reassemble
    And now they pass and now
    Their glittering wealth disburse
        On tufted grass a-tremble
    And lately leafing bough.

    Thus through the shining day
    We'll love or pass away
    Light hours in golden sleep,
        With clos'd half-sentient eyes
    And lids the light comes through,
    As sheep and flowers do
        Who no new toils devise,
    While shin...

Edward Shanks

Song: Meadow and Orchard.

    My heart is like a meadow,
    Where clouds go over,
    Dappling the mingled grass and clover
    With mingled sun and shadow,
    With light that will not stay
    And shade that sails away.

    Your heart is like an orchard,
    That has the sun for ever in its leaves,
    Where, on the grass beneath the trees,
    There falls the shadow of the fruit
    That ripen there for me.

Edward Shanks

Song

As I lay in the early sun,
Stretched in the grass, I thought upon
My true love, my dear love,
Who has my heart for ever,
Who is my happiness when we meet,
My sorrow when we sever.
She is all fire when I do burn,
Gentle when I moody turn,
Brave when I am sad and heavy
And all laughter when I am merry.
And so I lay and dreamed and dreamed,
And so the day wheeled on,
While all the birds with thoughts like mine
Were singing to the sun.

Edward Shanks

Song: Fear in the Night.

    I am afraid to-night,
        We are too glad, too gay,
    Our life too sweet, too bright
        To last another day.

    What hap, what chance can fall,
        What sorrow come, what schism,
    What loss, what cataclysm
        To part us two at all?

    The stars with ageless fire
        In skies serene the same
    Observe our young desire
        And watch our loves aflame.

    A whisper soft, a sound
        Unfollowed, unattended,
    Shakes all the branches round:
        They sleep and it is ended.

    You sleep and I alone
        Torment myself with fear
    For new joys coming near
        And gracious actions done.

    I am afraid to-night,
        We are too glad, too gay,
    Ou...

Edward Shanks

In Absence

My lovely one, be near to me to-night.
For now I need you most, since I have gone
Through the sparse woodland in the fading light,
Where in time past we two have walked alone,
Heard the loud nightjar spin his pleasant note,
And seen the wild rose folded up for sleep,
And whispered, though the soft word choked my throat,
Your dear name out across the valley deep.
Be near to me, for now I need you most.
To-night I saw an unsubstantial flame
Flickering along those shadowy paths, a ghost
That turned to me and answered to your name,
Mocking me with a wraith of far delight.
... My lovely one, be near to me to-night.

Edward Shanks