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Modern Love XVIII: Here Jack and Tom

 Here Jack and Tom are paired with Moll and Meg. 
Curved open to the river-reach is seen 
A country merry-making on the green. 
Fair space for signal shakings of the leg. 
That little screwy fiddler from his booth, 
Whence flows one nut-brown stream, commands the joints 
Of all who caper here at various points. 
I have known rustic revels in my youth: 
The May-fly pleasures of a mind at ease. 
An early goddess was a county lass: 
A charmed Amphion-oak she tripped the grass. 
What life was that I lived? The life of these? 
Heaven keep them happy! Nature they seem near. 
They must, I think, be wiser than I am; 
They have the secret of the bull and lamb. 
'Tis true that when we trace its source, 'tis beer.






Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry