________________________________________________
Title: The Great North Road
Author: Alfred Noyes [
More Titles by Noyes]
Just as the moon was rising, I met a ghostly pedlar
Singing for company beneath his ghostly load,--
Once, there were velvet lads with vizards on their faces,
Riding up to rob me on the great North Road.
Now, my pack is heavy, and my pocket full of guineas
Chimes like a wedding-peal, but little I enjoy
Roads that never echo to the chirrup of their canter,--
The gay Golden Farmer and the Hereford Boy.
Rogues were they all, but their raid was from Elf-land!
Shod with elfin silver were the steeds they bestrode.
Merlin buckled on the spurs that wheeled thro' the wet fern
Bright as Jack-o'-Lanthorns off the great North Road.
Tales were told in country inns when Turpin rode to Rippleside!
Puck tuned the fiddle-strings, and country maids grew coy,
Tavern doors grew magical when Colonel Jack might tap at them,
The gay Golden Farmer and the Hereford Boy.
What are you seeking then? I asked this honest pedlar.
--O, Mulled Sack or Natty Hawes might ease me of my load!--
Where are they flown then?--Flown where I follow;
They are all gone for ever up the great North Road.
Rogues were they all; but the white dust assoils 'em!
Paradise without a spice of deviltry would cloy.
Heavy is my pack till I meet with Jerry Abershaw,
The gay Golden Farmer and the Hereford Boy.
[The end]
Alfred Noyes's poem: Great North Road
________________________________________________
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
