Twenty Years Ago

From New Poems (1916).

Round the house were lilacs and strawberries	 
  And foal-foots spangling the paths,	 
And far away on the sand-hills, dewberries	 
  Caught dust from the sea's long swaths.	 
  
Up the wolds the woods were walking,	         
  And nuts fell out of their hair.	 
At the gate the nets hung, balking	 
  The star-lit rush of a hare.	 
  
In the autumn fields, the stubble	 
  Tinkled the music of gleaning.	  
At a mother's knees, the trouble	 
  Lost all its meaning.	 
  
Yea, what good beginnings	 
  To this sad end!	 
Have we had our innings?	  
  God forfend!