Renyard The Fox - Part 2 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AAAABBCCDDEFAACC CCDDGGDDAAHHDDIIJJ DDGCCCAHKL HHAADDMM NNOODDAAAAKKDDAACCDD DD CCCCDDPPCCQQGG DDCCHHCCDD DDAARRAA DDDDDDAA HHAA DDCCSS TTDDHHCC DDUU AADD DDDD CCCC AAAADDDD HHVVCCCCVVRRDD DDCCDDDDDDDDCCDDAA DDHHDDAADDRRDDCC DDDD DDGG DDWW RRHH XXDDYY DDCCDD DDAADDHHHHZZ DDDDHHDD A2A2CC B2B2AADDVVDDCCDDAA DDDDDDRRDDD DAAAAHHAACCC2D2CCAAC CD DDDDDJJDDDDHHDDE2E2D ADF2F2RRDDDCCAADDF2F 2AADDHHRRAAAAG2G2HHA AAAAAAAG2 G2CCDDHHHHHHH HHHDDRRC CDDCCDDGGVVAADDCCDDG 2G2DD DDDDD DDDAAAADDAAH2H2C CDDCCG2 G2AAAAC2C2DDAADDDDI2 I2DDDDC CDDGGDDG2G2HHCCJ2J2K 2K2G2 G2DDRRDDVVRRDDDDHHDD DDHHRRDDDDCCDDCCRRR AADDG2G2RHDDHHVVAACC HHDDG2G2 DDL2L2DDDDG2G2 DDAA HHAA RRDD AACCHHRR DDL2L2DDDD HHDDDDHHRRDDG2G2G2G2 HHRRDD QM2GGDDRR DDRRDDRRCCN2N2RRHH CCCCAACCDDVVGGHHHHDD GGHHDDRRHHHHCC RRRRAACCGGAAAADDDDAA DDH2H2 DDG2G2RRAA DDDDQQWW DDGGDDAAAAGGCCRRVV DDDD DDGGDDDD GGDDGG G2G2DDAA DDO2O2GGDDGGDD AACCN2N2RRG2G2 RRADGGZZGGDD AAAARRAACCDD DDGGDDD DDDDDDGGRR DDDDRRRRCC GGDDGG GGDDRRAARRDDDDRRAAAA G2G2GG RRDD AARRVVCC BBVVCCDDDDA A DDDDCCQQ DDQQCCAADD RRG2G2DDDDDD CCDDRR GGVV DDCCGGCC AACCDDDDGGD D DDGG H2H2DDDDDDQQDDCCVVGG DDDDAAGGCCAADDDDDDG2 G2DDAAD DDDDDAADDDDCCAA DDGGRRGGDDDDDD DDCCH2GG2AADDCCGGGGC CDD DDAACCCC DDDDDDGGCCDDA ACCDDDDDD DDVV AAAA GGRR VVDDO2O2 DDDDAACC DDDD G2G2CCAARR AARR GGDD RRCC RRDD DDDDGGDDDDG2G2DDD DAAGGDDCCRRCC DDGGAADD G2G2AAVVDDP2P2VVCC DDG2G2DDG2G2DD CC DDDDGGGG RRGGGGAA GGDD DDAARRGGRR GGAA DDDD DDGGGGDDCC DDCC AADDDDG2G2CCDD AAGGRR O2O2CC GGDD GGCC DDDDDDDDGGG2G2CC AAAARRQ2Q2A A DDDD RRGGGG DDGGDDGGDD GGDD DDDDDD AADD DDG2 G2DDGGG2G2DD AADDCCO2O2 G2G2DDDDR2R2DDCC GGDDAA GGG2G2CCHHDDH2H2AAAA AACCDDD DDDDD DDHH DDGG DDDD

On old Cold Crendon's windy tops	A
Grows wintrily Blown Hilcote Copse	A
Wind bitten beech with badger barrows	A
Where brocks eat wasp grubs with their marrows	A
And foxes lie on short grassed turf	B
Nose between paws to hear the surf	B
Of wind in the beeches drowsily	C
There was our fox bred lustily	C
Three years before and there he berthed	D
Under the beech roots snugly earthed	D
With a roof of flint and a floor of chalk	E
And ten bitten hens' heads each on its stalk	F
Some rabbits' paws some fur from scuts	A
A badger's corpse and a smell of guts	A
And there on the night before my tale	C
He trotted out for a point in the vale	C
	-
He saw from the cover edge the valley	C
Go trooping down with its droops of sally	C
To the brimming river's lipping bend	D
And a light in the inn at Water's End	D
He heard the owl go hunting by	G
And the shriek of the mouse the owl made die	G
And the purr of the owl as he tore the red	D
Strings from between his claws and fed	D
The smack of joy of the horny lips	A
Marbled green with the blob by strips	A
He saw the farms where the dogs were barking	H
Cold Crendon Court and Copsecote Larking	H
The fault with the spring as bright as gleed	D
Green slash laced with water weed	D
A glare in the sky still marked the town	I
Though all folk slept and the blinds were down	I
The street lamps watched the empty square	J
The night cat sang his evil there	J
	-
The fox's nose tipped up and round	D
Since smell is a part of sight and sound	D
Delicate smells were drifting by	G
The sharp nose flaired them heedfully	C
Partridges in the clover stubble	C
Crouched in a ring for the stoat to nubble	C
Rabbit bucks beginning to box	A
A scratching place for the pheasant cock	H
A hare in the dead grass near the drain	K
And another smell like the spring again	L
	-
A faint rank taint like April coming	H
It cocked his ears and his blood went drumming	H
For somewhere out by Ghost Heath Stubs	A
Was a roving vixen wanting cubs	A
Over the valley floating faint	D
On a warmth of windflaw came the taint	D
He cocked his ears he' upped his brush	M
And he went upwind like an April thrush	M
	-
By the Roman Road to Braiches Ridge	N
Where the fallen willow makes a bridge	N
Over the brook by White Hart's Thorn	O
To the acres thin with pricking corn	O
Over the sparse green hair of the wheat	D
By the Clench Brook Mill at Clench Brook Leat	D
Through Cowfoot Pastures to Nonely Stevens	A
And away to Poltrewood St Jevons	A
Past Tott Hill Down all snaked with meuses	A
Past Clench St Michael and Naunton Crucis	A
Past Howle's Oak Farm where the raving brain	K
Of a dog who heard him foamed his chain	K
Then off as the farmer's window opened	D
Past Stonepits Farm to Upton Hope End	D
Over short sweet grass and worn flint arrows	A
And the three dumb hows of Tencombe Barrows	A
And away and away with a rolling scramble	C
Through the sally and up the bramble	C
With a nose for the smells the night wind carried	D
And his red fell clean for being married	D
For clicketting time and Ghost Heath Wood	D
Had put the violet in his blood	D
	-
At Tencombe Rings near the Manor Linney	C
His foot made the great black stallion whinny	C
And the stallion's whinny aroused the stable	C
And the bloodhound bitches stretched their cable	C
And the clink of the bloodhounds' chain aroused	D
The sweet breathed kye as they chewed and drowsed	D
And the stir of the cattle changed the dream	P
Of the cat in the loft to tense green gleam	P
The red wattled black cock hot from Spain	C
Crowed from his perch for dawn again	C
His breast pufft hens one legged on perch	Q
Gurgled beak down like men in church	Q
They crooned in the dark lifting one red eye	G
In the raftered roost as the fox went by	G
	-
By Tencombe Regis and Slaughters Court	D
Through the great grass square of Roman Fort	D
By Nun's Wood Yews and the Hungry Hill	C
And the Corpse Way Stones all standing still	C
By Seven Springs Mead to Deerlip Brook	H
And a lolloping leap to Water Hook	H
Then with eyes like sparks and his blood awoken	C
Over the grass to Water's Oaken	C
And over the hedge and into the ride	D
In Ghost Heath Wood for his roving bride	D
	-
Before the dawn he had loved and fed	D
And found a kennel and gone to bed	D
On a shelf of grass in a thick of gorse	A
That would bleed a hound and blind a horse	A
There he slept in the mild west weather	R
With his nose and brush well tuckt together	R
He slept like a child who sleeps yet hears	A
With the self who needs neither eyes nor ears	A
	-
He slept while the pheasant cock untucked	D
His head from his wing flew down and kukked	D
While the drove of the starlings whirred and wheeled	D
Out of the ash trees into field	D
While with great black flags that flogged and paddled	D
The rooks went out to the plough and straddled	D
Straddled wide on the moist red cheese	A
Of the furrows driven at Uppat's Leas	A
	-
Down in the village men awoke	H
The chimneys breathed with a faint blue smoke	H
The fox slept on though tweaks and twitches	A
Due to his dreams ran down his flitches	A
	-
The cows were milked and the yards were sluict	D
And the cocks and hens let out of roost	D
Windows were opened mats were beaten	C
All men's breakfasts were cooked and eaten	C
But out in the gorse on the grassy shelf	S
The sleeping fox looked after himself	S
	-
Deep in his dream he heard the life	T
Of the woodland seek for food or wife	T
The hop of a stoat a buck that thumped	D
The squeal of a rat as a weasel jumped	D
The blackbird's chackering scattering crying	H
The rustling bents from the rabbits flying	H
Cows in a byre and distant men	C
And Condicote church clock striking ten	C
	-
At eleven o'clock a boy went past	D
With a rough haired terrier following fast	D
The boy's sweet whistle and dog's quick yap	U
Woke the fox from out of his nap	U
	-
He rose and stretched till the claws in his pads	A
Stuck hornily out like long black gads	A
He listened a while and his nose went round	D
To catch the smell of the distant sound	D
	-
The windward smells came free from taint	D
They were rabbit strongly with lime kiln faint	D
A wild duck likely at Sars Holt Pond	D
And sheep on the Sars Holt Down beyond	D
	-
The leeward smells were much less certain	C
For the Ghost Heath Hill was like a curtain	C
Yet vague from the leeward now and then	C
Came muffled sounds like the sound of men	C
	-
He moved to his right to a clearer space	A
And all his soul came into his face	A
Into his eyes and into his nose	A
As over the hill a murmur rose	A
His ears were cocked and his keen nose flaired	D
He sneered with his lips till his teeth were bared	D
He trotted right and lifted a pad	D
Trying to test what foes he had	D
	-
On Ghost Heath turf was a steady drumming	H
Which sounded like horses quickly coming	H
It died as the hunt went down the dip	V
Then Malapert yelped at Myngs's whip	V
A bright iron horseshoe clinkt on stone	C
Then a man's voice spoke not one alone	C
Then a burst of laughter swiftly still	C
Muffled away by Ghost Heath Hill	C
Then indistinctly the clop clip clep	V
On Brady Ride of a horse's step	V
Then silence then in a burst much clearer	R
Voices and horses coming nearer	R
And another noise of a pit pat beat	D
On the Ghost Hill grass of foxhound feet	D
	-
He sat on his haunches listening hard	D
While his mind went over the compass card	D
Men were coming and rest was done	C
But he still had time to get fit to run	C
He could outlast horse and outrace hound	D
But men were devils from Lobs's Pound	D
Scent was burning the going good	D
The world one lust for a fox's blood	D
The main earths stopped and the drains put to	D
And fifteen miles to the land he knew	D
But of all the ills the ill least pleasant	D
Was to run in the light when men were present	D
Men in the fields to shout and sign	C
For a lift of hounds to a fox's line	C
Men at the earth at the long point's end	D
Men at each check and none his friend	D
Guessing each shift that a fox contrives	A
But still needs must when the devil drives	A
	-
He readied himself then a soft horn blew	D
Then a clear voice carolled Ed hoick Eleu	D
Then the wood end rang with the clear voice crying	H
And the crackle of scrub where hounds were trying	H
Then the horn blew nearer a hound's voice quivered	D
Then another then more till his body shivered	D
He left his kennel and trotted thence	A
With his ears flexed back and his nerves all tense	A
He trotted down with his nose intent	D
For a fox's line to cross his scent	D
It was only fair he being a stranger	R
That the native fox should have the danger	R
Danger was coming so swift so swift	D
That the pace of his trot began to lift	D
The blue winged Judas a jay began	C
Swearing hounds whimpered air stank of man	C
	-
He hurried his trotting he now felt frighted	D
It was his poor body made hounds excited	D
He felt as he ringed the great wood through	D
That he ought to make for the land he knew	D
	-
Then the hounds' excitement quivered and quickened	D
Then a horn blew death till his marrow sickened	D
Then the wood behind was a crash of cry	G
For the blood in his veins it made him fly	G
	-
They were on his line it was death to stay	D
He must make for home by the shortest way	D
But with all this yelling and all this wrath	W
And all these devils how find a path	W
	-
He ran like a stag to the wood's north corner	R
Where the hedge was thick and the ditch a yawner	R
But the scarlet glimpse of Myngs on Turk	H
Watching the woodside made him shirk	H
	-
He ringed the wood and looked at the south	X
What wind there was blew into his mouth	X
But close to the woodland's blackthorn thicket	D
Was Dansey still as a stone on picket	D
At Dansey's back were a twenty more	Y
Watching the cover and pressing fore	Y
	-
The fox drew in and flaired with his muzzle	D
Death was there if he messed the puzzle	D
There were men without and hounds within	C
A crying that stiffened the hair on skin	C
Teeth in cover and death without	D
Both deaths coming and no way out	D
	-
His nose ranged swjftly his heart beat fast	D
Then a crashing cry rose up in a blast	D
Then horsehooves trampled then horses' flitches	A
Burst their way through the hazel switches	A
Then the horn again made the hounds like mad	D
And a man quite near said Found by Gad	D
And a man quite near said Now he'll break	H
Larks Ley bourne Copse is the line he'll take	H
And men moved up with their talk and stink	H
And the traplike noise of the horseshoe clink	H
Men whose coming meant death from teeth	Z
In a worrying wrench with him beneath	Z
	-
The fox sneaked down by the cover side	D
With his ears flexed back as a snake would glide	D
He took the ditch at the cover end	D
He hugged the ditch as his only friend	D
The blackbird cock with the golden beak	H
Got out of his way with a jabbering shriek	H
And the shriek told Tom on the raking bay	D
That for eighteen pence he was gone away	D
	-
He ran in the hedge in the triple growth	A2
Of bramble and hawthorn glad of both	A2
Till a couple of fields were past and then	C
Came the living death of the dread of men	C
	-
Then as he listened he heard a Hoy	B2
Tom Danser's horn and A wa wa woy	B2
Then all hounds crying with all their forces	A
Then a thundering down of seventy horses	A
Robin Dawe's horn and halloos of Hey	D
Hark Hollar Hoik and Gone away	D
Hark Hollar Hoik and a smack of the whip	V
A yelp as a tail hound caught the clip	V
Hark Hollar Hark Hollar then Robin made	D
Pip go crash through the cut and laid	D
Hounds were over and on his line	C
With a head like bees upon Tipple Tine	C
The sound of the nearness sent a flood	D
Of terror of death through the fox's blood	D
He upped his brush and he cocked his nose	A
And he went upwind as a racer goes	A
	-
Bold Robin Dawe was over first	D
Cheering his hounds on at the burst	D
The field were spurring to be in it	D
Hold hard sirs give them half a minute	D
Came from Sir Peter on his white	D
The hounds went romping with delight	D
Over the grass and got together	R
The tail hounds galloped hell for leather	R
After the pack at Myngs's yell	D
A cry like every kind of bell	D
Rang from these rompers as they raced	D
	-
The riders thrusting to be placed	D
Jammed down their hats and shook their horses	A
The hounds romped past with all their forces	A
They crashed into the blackthorn fence	A
The scent was heavy on their sense	A
So hot it seemed the living thing	H
It made the blood within them sing	H
Gusts of it made their hackles rise	A
Hot gulps of it were agonies	A
Of joy and thirst for blood and passion	C
Forrard cried Robin that's the fashion	C
He raced beside his pack to cheer	C2
The field's noise died upon his ear	D2
A faint horn far behind blew thin	C
In cover lest some hound were in	C
Then instantly the great grass rise	A
Shut field and cover from his eyes	A
He and his racers were alone	C
A dead fox or a broken bone	C
Said Robin peering for his prey	D
	-
The rise which shut the field away	D
Showed him the vale's great map spread out	D
The down's lean flank and thrusting snout	D
Pale pastures red brown plough dark wood	D
Blue distance still as solitude	D
Glitter of water here and there	J
The trees so delicately bare	J
The dark green gorse and bright green holly	D
glorious God he said how jolly	D
And there downhill two fields ahead	D
The lolloping red dog fox sped	D
Over Poor Pastures to the brook	H
He grasped these things in one swift look	H
Then dived into the bullfinch heart	D
Through thorns that ripped his sleeves apart	D
And skutched new blood upon his brow	E2
His point's Lark's Leybourne Covers now	E2
Said Robin landing with a grunt	D
Forrard my beautifuls	A
The hunt	D
Followed downhill to race with him	F2
White Rabbit with his swallow's skim	F2
Drew within hail Quick burst Sir Peter	R
A traveller Nothing could be neater	R
Making for Godsdown Clumps I take it	D
Lark's Leybourne sir if he can make it	D
Forrard	D
Bill Ridden thundered down	C
His big mouth grinned beneath his frown	C
The hounds were going away from horses	A
He saw the glint of watercourses	A
Yell Brook and Wittold's Dyke ahead	D
His horseshoes sliced the green turf red	D
Young Cothill's chaser rushed and past him	F2
Nob Manor running next said Blast him	F2
The poet chap who thinks he rides	A
Hugh Colway's mare made straking strides	A
Across the grass the Colonel next	D
Then Squire volleying oaths and vext	D
Fighting his hunter for refusing	H
Bell Ridden like a cutter cruising	H
Sailing the grass then Cob on Warder	R
Then Minton Price upon Marauder	R
Ock Gurney with his eyes intense	A
Burning as with a different sense	A
His big mouth muttering glad By damns	A
Then Pete crouched down from head to hams	A
Rapt like a saint bright focussed flame	G2
Bennett with devils in his wame	G2
Chewing black cud and spitting slanting	H
Copse scattering jests and Stukely ranting	H
Sal Ridden taking line from Dansey	A
Long Robert forcing Necromancy	A
A dozen more with bad beginnings	A
Myngs riding hard to snatch an innings	A
A wild last hound with high shrill yelps	A
Smacked forrard with some whipthong skelps	A
Then last of all at top of rise	A
The crowd on foot all gasps and eyes	A
The run up hill had winded them	G2
	-
They saw the Yell Brook like a gem	G2
Blue in the grass a short mile on	C
They heard faint cries but hounds were gone	C
A good eight fields and out of sight	D
Except a rippled glimmer white	D
Going away with dying cheering	H
And scarlet flappings disappearing	H
And scattering horses going going	H
Going like mad White Rabbit snowing	H
Far on ahead a loose horse taking	H
Fence after fence with stirrups shaking	H
And scarlet specks and dark specks dwindling	H
	-
Nearer were twigs knocked into kindling	H
A much bashed fence still dropping stick	H
Flung clods still quivering from the kick	H
Cut hoof marks pale in cheesy clay	D
The horse smell blowing clean away	D
Birds flitting back into the cover	R
One last faint cry then all was over	R
The hunt had been and found and gone	C
	-
At Neaking's Farm three furlongs on	C
Hounds raced across the Waysmore Road	D
Where many of the riders slowed	D
To tittup down a grassy lane	C
Which led as hounds led in the main	C
And gave no danger of a fall	D
There as they tittupped one and all	D
Big Twenty Stone came scattering by	G
His great mare made the hoof casts fly	G
By leave he cried Come on Come up	V
This fox is running like a tup	V
Let's leave this lane and get to terms	A
No sense in crawling here like worms	A
Come let me pass and let me start	D
This fox is running like a hart	D
And this is going to be a run	C
Come on I want to see the fun	C
Thanky By leave Now Maiden do it	D
He faced the fence and put her through it	D
Shielding his eyes lest spikes should blind him	G2
The crashing blackthorn closed behind him	G2
Mud scatters chased him as he scudded	D
His mare's ears cocked her neat feet thudded	D
	-
The kestrel cruising over meadow	D
Watched the hunt gallop on his shadow	D
Wee figures almost at a stand	D
Crossing the multicoloured land	D
Slow as a shadow on a dial	D
	-
Some horses swerving at a trial	D
Balked at a fence at gates they bunched	D
The mud about the gates was dunched	D
Like German cheese men pushed for places	A
And kicked the mud into the faces	A
Of those who made them room to pass	A
The half mile's gallop on the grass	A
Had tailed them out and warmed their blood	D
His point's the Banner Barton Wood	D
That or Goat's Gorse A stinger this	A
You're right in that by Jove it is	A
An upwind travelling fox by George	H2
They say Tom viewed him at the forge	H2
Well let me pass and let's be on	C
	-
They crossed the lane to Tolderton	C
The hill marl died to valley clay	D
And there before them ran the grey	D
Yell Water swirling as it ran	C
The Yell Brook of the hunting man	C
The hunters eyed it and were grim	G2
	-
They saw the water snaking slim	G2
Ahead like silver they could see	A
Each man his pollard willow tree	A
Firming the bank they felt their horses	A
Catch the gleam's hint and gather forces	A
They heard the men behind draw near	C2
Each horse was trembling as a spear	C2
Trembles in hand when tense to hurl	D
They saw the brimmed brook's eddies curl	D
The willow roots like water snakes	A
The beaten holes the ratten makes	A
They heard the water's rush they heard	D
Hugh Colway's mare come like a bird	D
A faint cry from the hounds ahead	D
Then saddle strain the bright hooves' tread	D
Quick words the splash of mud the launch	I2
The sick hope that the bank be staunch	I2
Then Souse with Souse to left and right	D
Maroon across Sir Peter's white	D
Down but pulled up Tom over Hugh	D
Mud to the hat but over too	D
Well splashed by Squire who was in	C
	-
With draggled pink stuck close to skin	C
The Squire leaned from bank and hauled	D
His mired horse's rein he bawled	D
For help from each man racing by	G
What help you pull him out Not I	G
What made you pull him in they said	D
Nob Manor cleared and turned his head	D
And cried Wade up The ford's upstream	G2
Ock Gurney in a cloud of steam	G2
Stood by his dripping cob and wrung	H
The taste of brook mud from his tongue	H
And scraped his poor cob's pasterns clean	C
Lord what a crowner we've a been	C
This jumping brook's a mucky job	J2
He muttered grinning Lord poor cob	J2
Now sir let me He turned to Squire	K2
And cleared his hunter from the mire	K2
By skill and sense and strength of arm	G2
	-
Meanwhile the fox passed Nonesuch Farm	G2
Keeping the spinney on his right	D
Hounds raced him here with all their might	D
Along the short firm grass like fire	R
The cowman viewed him from the byre	R
Lolloping on six fields ahead	D
Then hounds still carrying such a head	D
It made him stare then Rob on Pip	V
Sailing the great grass like a ship	V
Then grand Maroon in all his glory	R
Sweeping his strides his great chest hoary	R
With foam fleck and the pale hill marl	D
They strode the Leet they flew the Snarl	D
They knocked the nuts at Nonesuch Mill	D
Raced up the spur of Gallows Hill	D
And viewed him there The line he took	H
Was Tineton and the Pantry Brook	H
Going like fun and hounds like mad	D
Tom glanced to see what friends he had	D
Still within sight before he turned	D
The ridge's shoulder he discerned	D
One field away young Cothill sailing	H
Easily up Pete Gurney failing	H
Hugh Colway quartering on Sir Peter	R
Bill waiting on the mare to beat her	R
Sal Ridden skirting to the right	D
A horse with stirrups flashing bright	D
Over his head at every stride	D
Looked like the Major's Tom espied	D
Far back a scarlet speck of man	C
Running and straddling as he ran	C
Charles Copse was up Nob Manor followed	D
Then Bennett's big boned black that wallowed	D
Clumsy but with the strength of ten	C
Then black and brown and scarlet men	C
Brown horses white and black and grey	R
Scattered a dozen fields away	R
The shoulder shut the scene away	R
	-
From the Gallows Hill to the Tineton Copse	A
There were ten ploughed fields like ten full stops	A
All wet red clay where a horse's foot	D
Would be swathed feet thick like an ash tree root	D
The fox raced on on the headlands firm	G2
Where his swift feet scared the coupling worm	G2
The rooks rose raving to curse him raw	R
He snarled a sneer at their swoop and caw	H
Then on then on down a half ploughed field	D
Where a ship like plough drove glitter keeled	D
With a bay horse near and a white horse leading	H
And a man saying Zook and the red earth bleeding	H
He gasped as he saw the ploughman drop	V
The stilts and swear at the team to stop	V
The plough man ran in his red clay clogs	A
Crying Zick un Towzer zick good dogs	A
A couple of wire haired lurchers lean	C
Arose from his wallet nosing keen	C
With a rushing swoop they were on his track	H
Putting chest to stubble to bite his back	H
He swerved from his line with the curs at heel	D
The teeth as they missed him clicked like steel	D
With a worrying snarl they quartered on him	G2
While the ploughman shouted Zick upon him	G2
	-
The lurcher dogs soon shot their bolt	D
And the fox raced on by the Hazel Holt	D
Down the dead grass tilt to the sandstone gash	L2
Of the Pantry Brook at Tineton Ash	L2
The loitering water flooded full	D
Had yeast on its lip like raddled wool	D
It was wrinkled over with Arab script	D
Of eddies that twisted up and slipt	D
The stepping stones had a rush about them	G2
So the fox plunged in and swam without them	G2
	-
He crossed to the cattle's drinking shallow	D
Firmed up with rush and the roots of mallow	D
He wrung his coat from his draggled bones	A
And romped away for the Sarsen Stones	A
	-
A sneaking glance with his ears flexed back	H
Made sure that his scent had failed the pack	H
For the red clay good for corn and roses	A
Was cold for scent and brought hounds to noses	A
	-
He slackened pace by the Tineton Tree	R
A vast hollow ash tree grown in three	R
He wriggled a shake and padded slow	D
Not sure if the hounds were on or no	D
	-
A horn blew faint then he heard the sounds	A
Of a cantering huntsman lifting hounds	A
The ploughman had raised his hat for sign	C
And the hounds were lifted and on his line	C
He heard the splash in the Pantry Brook	H
And a man's voice Thiccy's the line he took	H
And a clear Yoi doit and a whimpering quaver	R
Though the lurcher dogs had dulled the savour	R
	-
The fox went off while the hounds made halt	D
And the horses breathed and the field found fault	D
But the whimpering rose to a crying crash	L2
By the hollow ruin of Tineton Ash	L2
Then again the kettledrum horsehooves beat	D
And the green blades bent to the fox's feet	D
And the cry rose keen not far behind	D
Of the Blood blood blood in the foxhounds' mind	D
	-
The fox was strong he was full of running	H
He could run for an hour and then be cunning	H
But the cry behind him made him chill	D
They were nearer now and they meant to kill	D
They meant to run him until his blood	D
Clogged on his heart as his brush with mud	D
Till his back bent up and his tongue hung flagging	H
And his belly and brush were filthed from dragging	H
Till he crouched stone still dead beat and dirty	R
With nothing but teeth against the thirty	R
And all the way to that blinding end	D
He would meet with men and have none his friend	D
Men to holloa and men to run him	G2
With stones to stagger and yells to stun him	G2
Men to head him with whips to beat him	G2
Teeth to mangle and mouths to eat him	G2
And all the way that wild high crying	H
To cold his blood with the thought of dying	H
The horn and the cheer and the drum like thunder	R
Of the horsehooves stamping the meadows under	R
He upped his brush and went with a will	D
For the Sarsen Stones on Wan Dyke Hill	D
	-
As he ran the meadow by Tineton Church	Q
A christening party left the porch	M2
They stood stock still as he pounded by	G
They wished him luck but they thought he'd die	G
The toothless babe in his long white coat	D
Looked delicate meat the fox took note	D
But the sight of them grinning there pointing finger	R
Made him put on steam till he went a stinger	R
	-
Past Tineton Church over Tineton Waste	D
With the lolloping ease of a fox's haste	D
The fur on his chest blown dry with the air	R
His brush still up and his cheek teeth bare	R
Over the Waste where the ganders grazed	D
The long swift lilt of his loping lazed	D
His ears cocked up as his blood ran higher	R
He saw his point and his eyes took fire	R
The Wan Dyke Hill with its fir tree barren	C
Its dark of gorse and its rabbit warren	C
The Dyke on its heave like a tightened girth	N2
And holes in the Dyke where a fox might earth	N2
He had rabbited there long months before	R
The earths were deep and his need was sore	R
The way was new but he took a bearing	H
And rushed like a blown ship billow sharing	H
	-
Off Tineton Common to Tineton Dean	C
Where the wind hid elders pushed with green	C
Through the Dean's thin cover across the lane	C
And up Midwinter to King of Spain	C
Old Joe at digging his garden grounds	A
Said A fox being hunted where be hounds	A
lord my back to be young again	C
'Stead a zellin' zider in King of Spain	C
hark I hear' em sweet sweet	D
Why there be redcoat in Gearge's wheat	D
And there be redcoat and there they gallop	V
Thur go a browncoat down a wallop	V
Quick Ellen quick Come Susan fly	G
Here'm hounds I zeed the fox go by	G
Go by like thunder go by like blasting	H
With his girt white teeth all looking ghasting	H
Look there come hounds Hark hear 'em crying	H
Lord belly to stubble ain't they flying	H
There's huntsman there The fox come past	D
As I was digging as fast as fast	D
He's only been gone a minute by	G
A girt dark dog as pert as pye	G
Ellen and Susan came out scattering	H
Brooms and dustpans till all was clattering	H
They saw the pack come head to foot	D
Running like racers nearly mute	D
Robin and Dansey quartering near	R
All going gallop like startled deer	R
A half dozen flitting scarlets showing	H
In the thin green Dean where the pines were growing	H
Blackcoats and browncoats thrusting and spurring	H
Sending the partridge coveys whirring	H
Then a rattle uphill and a clop up lane	C
It emptied the bar of the King of Spain	C
	-
Tom left his cider Dick left his bitter	R
Granfer James left his pipe and spitter	R
Out they came from the sawdust floor	R
They said They'm going They said Lor'	R
The fox raced on up the Barton Balks	A
With a crackle of kex in the nettle stalks	A
Over Hammond's grass to the dark green line	C
Of the larch wood smelling of turpentine	C
Scratch Steven Larches black to the sky	G
A sadness breathing with one long sigh	G
Grey ghosts of trees under funeral plumes	A
A mist of twig over soft brown glooms	A
As he entered the wood he heard the smacks	A
Chip jar of the fir pole feller's axe	A
He swerved to the left to a broad green ride	D
Where a boy made him rush for the farther side	D
He swerved to the left to the Barton Road	D
But there were the timberers come to load	D
Two timber carts and a couple of carters	A
With straps round their knees instead of garters	A
He swerved to the right straight down the wood	D
The carters watched him the boy hallooed	D
He leaped from the larch wood into tillage	H2
The cobbler's garden of Barton village	H2
	-
The cobbler bent at his wooden foot	D
Beating sprigs in a broken boot	D
He wore old glasses with thick horn rim	G2
He scowled at his work for his sight was dim	G2
His face was dingy his lips were grey	R
From primming sparrowbills day by day	R
As he turned his boot he heard a noise	A
At his garden end and he thought It's boys	A
	-
He saw his cat nip up on the shed	D
Where her back arched up till it touched her head	D
He saw his rabbit race round and round	D
Its little black box three feet from ground	D
His six hens cluckered and flocked to perch	Q
That's boys said cobbler so I'll go search	Q
He reached his stick and blinked in his wrath	W
When he saw 'a fox in his garden path	W
	-
The fox swerved left and scrambled out	D
Knocking crinked green shells from the brussels sprout	D
He scrambled out through the cobbler's paling	G
And up Pill's orchard to Purton's Tailing	G
Across the plough at the top of bent	D
Through the heaped manure to kill his scent	D
Over to Aldam's up to Cappell's	A
Past Nursery Lot with its whitewashed apples	A
Past Colston's Broom past Gaunt's past Shere's	A
Past Foxwhelps' Oasts with their hooded ears	A
Past Monk's Ash Clerewell past Beggars' Oak	G
Past the great elms blue with the Hinton smoke	G
Along Long Hinton to Hinton Green	C
Where the wind washed steeple stood serene	C
With its golden bird still sailing air	R
Past Banner Barton past Chipping Bare	R
Past Madding's Hollow down Dundry Dip	V
And up Goose Grass to the Sailing Ship	V
	-
The three black firs of the Ship stood still	D
On the bare chalk heave of the Dundry Hill	D
The fox looked back as he slackened past	D
The scaled red bole of the mizen mast	D
	-
There they were coming mute but swift	D
A scarlet smear in the blackthorn rift	D
A white horse rising a dark horse flying	G
And the hungry hounds too tense for crying	G
Stormcock leading his stern spear straight	D
Racing as though for a piece of plate	D
Little speck horsemen field on field	D
Then Dansey viewed him and Robin squealed	D
	-
At the View Halloo the hounds went frantic	G
Back went Stormcock and up went Antic	G
Up went Skylark as Antic sped	D
It was zest to blood how they carried head	D
Skylark drooped as Maroon drew by	G
Their hackles lifted they scored to cry	G
	-
The fox knew well that before they tore him	G2
They should try their speed on the downs before him	G2
There were three more miles to the Wan Dyke Hill	D
But his heart was high that he beat them still	D
The wind of the downland charmed his bones	A
So off he went for the Sarsen Stones	A
	-
The moan of the three great firs in the wind	D
And the Ai of the foxhounds died behind	D
Wind dapples followed the hill wind's breath	O2
On the Kill Down Gorge where the Danes found death	O2
Larks scattered up the peewits feeding	G
Rose in a flock from the Kill Down Steeding	G
The hare leaped up from her form and swerved	D
Swift left for the Starveall harebell turved	D
On the wind bare thorn some longtails prinking	G
Cried sweet as though wind blown glass were chinking	G
Behind came thudding and loud halloo	D
Or a cry from hounds as they came to view	D
	-
The pure clean air came sweet to his lungs	A
Till he thought foul scorn of those crying tongues	A
In a three mile more he would reach the haven	C
In the Wan Dyke croaked on by the raven	C
In a three mile more he would make his berth	N2
On the hard cool floor of a Wan Dyke earth	N2
Too deep for spade too curved for terrier	R
With the pride of the race to make rest the merrier	R
In a three mile more he would reach his dream	G2
So his game heart gulped and he put on steam	G2
	-
Like a rocket shot to a ship ashore	R
The lean red bolt of his body tore	R
Like a ripple of wind running swift on grass	A
Like a shadow on wheat when a cloud blows past	D
Like a turn at the buoy in a cutter sailing	G
When the bright green gleam lips white at the railing	G
Like the April snake whipping back to sheath	Z
Like the gannets' hurtle on fish beneath	Z
Like a kestrel chasing like a sickle reaping	G
Like all things swooping like all things sweeping	G
Like a hound for stay like a stag for swift	D
With his shadow beside like spinning drift	D
	-
Past the gibbet stock all stuck with nails	A
Where they hanged in chains what had hung at jails	A
Past Ashmundshowe where Ashmund sleeps	A
And none but the tumbling peewit weeps	A
Past Curlew Calling the gaunt grey corner	R
Where the curlew comes as a summer mourner	R
Past Blowbury Beacon shaking his fleece	A
Where all winds hurry and none brings peace	A
Then down on the mile long green decline	C
Where the turf's like spring and the air's like wine	C
Where the sweeping spurs of the downland spill	D
Into Wan Brook Valley and Wan Dyke Hill	D
	-
On he went with a galloping rally	D
Past Maesbury Clump for Wan Brook Valley	D
The blood in his veins went romping high	G
Get on on on to the earth or die	G
The air of the downs went purely past	D
Till he felt the glory of going fast	D
Till the terror of death though there indeed	D
Was lulled for a while by his pride of speed '	-
He was romping away from hounds and hunt	D
He had Wan Dyke Hill and his earth in front	D
In a one mile more when his point was made	D
He would rest in safety from dog or spade	D
Nose between paws he would hear the shout	D
Of the Gone to earth to the hounds without	D
The whine of the hounds and their cat feet gadding	G
Scratching the earth and their breath pad padding	G
He would hear the horn call hounds away	R
And rest in peace till another day	R
	-
In one mile more he would lie at rest	D
So for one mile more he would go his best	D
He reached the dip at the long droop's end	D
And he took what speed he had still to spend	D
So down past Maesbury beech clump grey	R
That would not be green till the end of May	R
Past Arthur's Table the white chalk boulder	R
Where pasque flowers purple the down's grey shoulder	R
Past Quichelm's Keeping past Harry's Thorn	C
To Thirty Acre all thin with corn	C
	-
As he raced the corn towards Wan Dyke Brook	G
The pack had view of the way he took	G
Robin hallooed from the downland's crest	D
He capped them on till they did their best	D
The quarter mile to the Wan Brook's brink	G
Was raced as quick as a man can think	G
	-
And here as he ran to the huntsman's yelling	G
The fox first felt that the pace was telling	G
His body and lungs seemed all grown old	D
His legs less certain his heart less bold	D
The hound noise nearer the hill slope steeper	R
The thud in the blood of his body deeper	R
His pride in his speed his joy in the race	A
Were withered away for what use was pace	A
He had run his best and the hounds ran better	R
Then the going worsened the earth was wetter	R
Then his brush drooped down till it sometimes dragged	D
And his fur felt sick and his chest was tagged	D
With taggles of mud and his pads seemed lead	D
It was well for him he'd an earth ahead	D
Down he went to the brook and over	R
Out of the corn and into the clover	R
Over the slope that the Wan Brook drains	A
Past Battle Tump where they earthed the Danes	A
Then up the hjll that the Wan Dyke rings	A
Where the Sarsen Stones stand grand like kings	A
	-
Seven Sarsens of granite grim	G2
As he ran them by they looked at him	G2
As he leaped the lip of their earthen paling	G
The hounds were gaining and he was failing	G
	-
He passed the Sarsens he left the spur	R
He pressed uphill to the blasted fir	R
He slipped as he leaped the hedge he slithered	D
He's mine thought Robin He's done he's dithered	D
	-
At the second attempt he cleared the fence	A
He turned half right where the gorse was dense	A
He was leading hounds by a furlong clear	R
He was past his best but his earth was near	R
He ran up gorse to the spring of the ramp	V
The steep green wall of the dead men's camp	V
He sidled up it and scampered down	C
To the deep green ditch of the Dead Men's Town	C
	-
Within as he reached that soft green turf	B
The wind blowing lonely moaned like surf	B
Desolate ramparts rose up steep	V
On either side for the ghosts to keep	V
He raced the trench past the rabbit warren	C
Close grown with moss which the wind made barren	C
He passed the spring where the rushes spread	D
And there in the stones was his earth ahead	D
One last short burst upon failing feet	D
There life lay waiting so sweet so sweet	D
Rest in a darkness balm for aches	A
	-
The earth was stopped It was barred with stakes	A
	-
With the hounds at head so close behind	D
He had to run as he changed his mind	D
This earth as he saw was stopped but still	D
There was one earth more on the Wan Dyke Hill	D
A rabbit burrow a furlong on	C
He could kennel there till the hounds were gone	C
Though his death seemed near he did not blench	Q
He upped his brush and he ran the trench	Q
	-
He ran the trench while the wind moaned treble	D
Earth trickled down there were falls of pebble	D
Down in the valley of that dark gash	Q
The wind withered grasses looked like ash	Q
Trickles of stones and earth fell down	C
In that dark alley of Dead Men's Town	C
A hawk arose from a fluff of feathers	A
From a distant fold came a bleat of wethers	A
He heard no noise from the hounds behind	D
But the hill wind moaning like something blind	D
	-
He turned the bend in the hill and there	R
Was his rabbit hole with its mouth worn bare	R
But there with a gun tucked under his arm	G2
Was young Sid Kissop of Purlpit's Farm	G2
With a white hob ferret to drive the rabbit	D
Into a net which was set to nab it	D
And young Jack Cole peered over the wall	D
And loosed a pup with a Z'bite en Saul	D
The terrier pup attacked with a will	D
So the fox swerved right and away downhill	D
	-
Down from the ramp of the Dyke he ran	C
To the brackeny patch where the gorse began	C
Into the gorse where the hill's heave hid	D
The line he took from the eyes of Sid	D
He swerved downwind and ran like a hare	R
For the wind blown spinney below him there	R
	-
He slipped from the gorse to the spinney dark	G
There were'curled grey growths on the oak tree bark	G
He saw no more of the terrier pup	V
But he heard men speak and the hounds come up	V
	-
He crossed the spinney with ears intent	D
For the cry of hounds on the way he went	D
His heart was thumping the hounds were near now	C
He could make no sprint at a cry and cheer now	C
He was past his perfect his strength was failing	G
His brush sag sagged and his legs were ailing	G
He felt as he skirted Dead Men's Town	C
That in one mile more they would have him down	C
	-
Through the withered oak's wind crouching tops	A
He saw men's scarlet above the copse	A
He heard men's oaths yet he felt hounds slacken	C
In the frondless stalks of the brittle bracken	C
He felt that the unseen link which bound	D
His spine to the nose of the leading hound	D
Was snapped that the hounds no longer knew	D
Which way to follow nor what to do	D
That the threat of the hound's teeth left his neck	G
They had ceased to run they had come to check	G
They were quartering wide on the Wan Hill's bent	D
	-
The terrier's chase had killed his scent	D
	-
He heard bits chink as the horses shifted	D
He heard hounds cast then he heard hounds lifted	D
But there came no cry from a new attack	G
His heart grew steady his breath came back	G
	-
He left the spinney and ran its edge	H2
By the deep dry ditch of the blackthorn hedge	H2
Then out of the ditch and down the meadow	D
Trotting at ease in the blackthorn shadow	D
Over the track called Godsdown Road	D
To the great grass heave of the gods' abode	D
He was moving now upon land he knew	D
Up Clench Royal and Morton Tew	D
The Pol Brook Cheddesdon and East Stoke Church	Q
High Clench St Lawrence and Tinker's Birch	Q
Land he had roved on night by night	D
For hot blood suckage or furry bite	D
The threat of the hounds behind was gone	C
He breathed deep pleasure and trotted on	C
While young Sid Kissop thrashed the pup	V
Robin on Pip came heaving up	V
And found his pack spread out at check	G
I'd like to wring your terrier's neck	G
He said you see He's spoiled our sport	D
He's killed the scent He broke off short	D
And stared at hounds and at the valley	D
No jay or magpie gave a rally	D
Down in the copse no circling rooks	A
Rose over fields old Joyful's looks	A
Were doubtful in the gorse the pack	G
Quested both up and down and back	G
He watched 'each hound for each small sign	C
They tried but could not hit the line	C
The scent was gone The field took place	A
Out of the way of hounds The pace	A
Had tailed them out though four remained	D
Sir Peter on White Rabbit stained	D
Red from the brooks Bill Ridden cheery	D
Hugh Colway with his mare dead weary	D
The Colonel with Marauder beat	D
They turned towards a thud of feet	D
Dansey and then young Cothill came	G2
His chestnut mare was galloped tame	G2
There's Copse a field behind he said	D
Those last miles put them all to bed	D
They're strung along the downs like flies	A
Copse and Nob Manor topped the rise	A
Thank God A check they said at last	D
	-
They cannot own it you must cast	D
Sir Peter said The soft horn blew	D
Tom turned the hounds upwind They drew	D
Upwind downhill by spinney side	D
They tried the brambled ditch they tried	D
The swamp all choked with bright green grass	A
And clumps of rush and pools like glass	A
Long since the dead men's drinking pond	D
They tried the white leaved oak beyond	D
But no hound spoke to it or feathered	D
The horse heads drooped like horses tethered	D
The men mopped brows An hour's hard run	C
Ten miles they said we must have done	C
It's all of six from Colston's Gorses	A
The lucky got their second horses	A
	-
The time ticked by He's lost they muttered	D
A pheasant rose A rabbit scuttered	D
Men mopped their scarlet cheeks and drank	G
They drew downwind along the bank	G
The Wan Way on the hill's south spur	R
Grown with dwarf oak and juniper	R
Like dwarves alive but no hound spoke	G
The seepings made the ground one soak	G
They turned the spur the hounds were beat	D
Then Robin shifted in his seat	D
Watching for signs but no signs showed	D
I'll lift across the Godsdown Road	D
Beyond the spinney Robin said	D
Tom turned them Robin went ahead	D
	-
Beyond the copse a great grass fallow	D
Stretched towards Stoke and Cheddesdon Mallow	D
A rolling grass where hounds grew keen	C
Yoi do it then This is where he's been	C
Said Robin eager at their joy	H2
Yooi Joyful lad Yooi Cornerboy	G
They're on to him	G2
At his reminders	A
The keen hounds hurried to the finders	A
The finding hounds began to hurry	D
Men jammed their hats prepared to scurry	D
The Ai Ai of the cry began	C
Its spirit passed to horse and man	C
The skirting hounds romped to the cry	G
Hound after hound cried Ai Ai Ai	G
Till all were crying running closing	G
Their heads well up and no heads nosing	G
Joyful ahead with spear straight stern	C
They raced the great slope to the burn	C
Robin beside them Tom behind	D
Pointing past Robin down the wind	D
	-
For there two furlongs on he viewed	D
On Holy Hill or Cheddesdon Rood	D
Just where the plough land joined the grass	A
A speck down the first furrow pass	A
A speck the colour of the plough	C
Yonder he goes We'll have him now	C
He cried The speck passed slowly on	C
It reached the ditch paused and was gone	C
	-
Then down the slope and up the Rood	D
Went the hunt's gallop Godsdown Wood	D
Dropped its last oak leaves at the rally	D
Over the Rood to High Clench Valley	D
The gallop led the redcoats scattered	D
The fragments of the hunt were tattered	D
Over five fields ev'n since the check	G
A dead fox or a broken neck	G
Said Robin Dawe Come up the Dane	C
The hunter lent against the rein	C
Cocking his ears he loved to see	D
The hounds at cry The hounds and he	D
The chiefs in all that feast of pace	A
	-
The speck in front began to race	A
The fox heard hounds get on to his line	C
And again the terror went down his spine	C
Again the back of his neck felt cold	D
From the sense of the hound's teeth taking hold	D
But his legs were rested his heart was good	D
He had breath to gallop to Mourne End Wood	D
It was four miles more but an earth at end	D
So he put on pace down the Rood Hill Bend	D
	-
Down the great grass slope which the oak trees dot	D
With a swerve to the right from the keeper's cot	D
Over High Clench Brook in its channel deep	V
To the grass beyond where he ran to sheep	V
	-
The sheep formed line like a troop of horse	A
They swerved as he passed to front his course	A
From behind as he ran a cry arose	A
See the sheep there Watch them There he goes	A
	-
He ran the sheep that their smell might check	G
The hounds from his scent and save his neck	G
But in two fields more he was made aware	R
That the hounds still ran Tom had viewed him there	R
	-
Tom had held them on through the taint of sheep	V
They had kept his line as they meant to keep	V
They were running hard with a burning scent	D
And Robin could see which way he went	D
The pace that he went brought strain to breath	O2
He knew as he ran that the grass was death	O2
	-
He ran the slope towards Morton Tew	D
That the heave of the hill might stop the view	D
Then he doubled down to the Blood Brook red	D
And swerved upstream in the brook's deep bed	D
He splashed the shallows he swam the deeps	A
He crept by banks as a moorhen creeps	A
He heard the hounds shoot over his line	C
And go on on on towards Cheddesdon Zine	C
	-
In the minute's peace he could slacken speed	D
The ease from the strain was sweet indeed	D
Cool to the pads the water flowed	D
He reached the bridge on the Cheddesdon Road	D
	-
As he came to light from the culvert dim	G2
Two boys on the bridge looked down on him	G2
They were young Bill Ripple and Harry Meun	C
Look there be squirrel a swimmin' see 'un	C
Noa ben't a squirrel be fox be fox	A
Now Hal get pebble we'll give 'en socks	A
Get pebble Billy dub 'un a plaster	R
There's for thy belly I'll learn 'ee master	R
	-
The stones splashed spray in the fox's eyes	A
He raced from brook in a burst of shies	A
He ran for the reeds in the withy car	R
Where the dead flags shake and the wild duck are	R
	-
He pushed through the reeds which cracked at his passing	G
To the High Clench Water a grey pool glassing	G
He heard Bill Ripple in Cheddesdon Road	D
Shout This way huntsmen it's here he goed	D
	-
Then Leu Leu Leu went the soft horn's laughter	R
The hounds they had checked came romping after	R
The clop of the hooves on the road was plain	C
Then the crackle of reeds then cries again	C
	-
A whimpering first then Robin's cheer	R
Then the Ai Ai Ai they were all too near	R
His swerve had brought but a minute's rest	D
Now he ran again and he ran his best	D
	-
With a crackle of dead dry stalks of reed	D
The hounds came romping at topmost speed	D
The redcoats ducked as the great hooves skittered	D
The Blood Brook's shallows to sheets that glittered	D
With a cracking whip and a Hoik Hoik Hoik	G
Forrard Tom galloped Bob shouted Yoick	G
Like a running fire the dead reeds crackled	D
The hounds' heads lifted their necks were hackled	D
Tom cried to Bob as they thundered through	D
He is running short we shall kill at Tew	D
Bob cried to Tom as they rode in team	G2
I was sure that time that he turned upstream	G2
As the hounds went over the brook in stride	D
I saw old Daffodil fling to side	D
So I guessed at once when they checked beyond	D
	-
The ducks flew up from the Morton Pond	D
The fox looked up at their tailing strings	A
He wished perhaps that a fox had wings	A
Wings with his friends in a great V straining	G
The autumn sky when the moon is gaining	G
For better the grey sky's solitude	D
Than to be two miles from the Mourne End Wood	D
With the hounds behind clean trained to run	C
And your strength half spent and your breath half done	C
Better the reeds and the sky and water	R
Than that hopeless pad from a certain slaughter	R
At the Morton Pond the fields began	C
Long Tew's green meadows he ran he ran	C
	-
First the six green fields that make a mile	D
With the lip ful Clench at the side the while	D
With rooks above slow circling showing	G
The world of men where a fox was going	G
The fields all empty dead grass bare hedges	A
And the brook's bright gleam in the dark of sedges	A
To all things else he was dumb and blind	D
He ran with the hounds a field behind	D
	-
At the sixth green field came the long slow climb	G2
To the Mourne End Wood as old as time	G2
Yew woods dark where they cut for bows	A
Oak woods green with the mistletoes	A
Dark woods evil but burrowed deep	V
With a brock's earth strong where a fox might sleep	V
He saw his point on the heaving hill	D
He had failing flesh and a reeling will	D
He felt the heave of the hill grow stiff	P2
He saw black woods which would shelter if	P2
Nothing else but the steepening slope	V
And a black line nodding a line of hope	V
The line of the yews on the long slope's brow	C
A mile three quarters a half mile now	C
	-
A quarter mile but the hounds had viewed	D
They yelled to have him this side the wood	D
Robin capped them Tom Dansey steered them	G2
With a Yooi Yooi Yooi Bill Ridden cheered them	G2
Then up went hackles as Shatterer led	D
Mob him cried Ridden the wood's ahead	D
Turn him damn it Yooi beauties beat him	G2
God let them get him let them eat him	G2
God said Ridden I'll eat him stewed	D
If you'll let us get him this side the wood	D
	-
But the pace uphill made a horse like stone	C
The pack went wild up the hill alone	C
	-
Three hundred yards and the worst was past	D
The slope was gentler and shorter grassed	D
The fox saw the bulk of the woods grow tall	D
On the brae ahead like a barrier wall	D
He saw the skeleton trees show sky	G
And the yew trees darken to see him die	G
And the line of the woods go reeling black	G
There was hope in the woods and behind the pack	G
	-
Two hundred yards and the trees grew taller	R
Blacker blinder as hope grew smaller	R
Cry seemed nearer the teeth seemed gripping	G
Pulling him back his pads seemed slipping	G
He was all one ache one gasp one thirsting	G
Heart on his chest bones beating bursting	G
The hounds were gaining like spotted pards	A
And the wood hedge still was a hundred yards	A
	-
The wood hedge black was a two year quick	G
Cut and laid that had sprouted thjck	G
Thorns all over and strongly plied	D
With a clean red ditch on the take off side	D
	-
He saw it now as a redness topped	D
With a wattle of thorn work spiky cropped	D
Spiky to leap on stiff to force	A
No safe jump for a failing horse	A
But beyond it darkness of yews together	R
Dark green plumes over soft brown feather	R
Darkness of woods where scents were blowing	G
Strange scents hot scents of wild things going	G
Scents that might draw these hounds away	R
So he ran ran ran to that clean red clay	R
	-
Still as he ran his pads slipped back	G
All his strength seemed to draw the pack	G
The trees drew over him dark like Norns	A
He was over the ditch and at the thorns	A
	-
I He thrust at the thorns which would not yield	D
He leaped but fell in sight of the field	D
The hounds went wild as they saw him fall	D
The fence stood stiff like a Bucks flint wall	D
	-
He gathered himself for a new attempt	D
His life before was an old dream dreamt	D
All that he was was a blown fox quaking	G
Jumping at thorns too stiff for breaking	G
While over the grass in crowd in cry	G
Came the grip teeth grinning to make him die	G
The eyes intense dull smouldering red	D
The fell like a ruff round each keen head	D
The pace like fire and scarlet men	C
Galloping yelling Yooi eat him then	C
	-
He gathered himself he leaped he reached	D
The top of the hedge like a fish boat beached	D
He steadied a second and then leaped down	C
To the dark of the wood where bright things drown	C
	-
He swerved sharp right under young green firs	A
Robin called on the Dane with spurs	A
He cried Come Dansey if God's not good	D
We shall change our fox in this Mourne End Wood	D
Tom cried back as he charged like spate	D
Mine can't jump that I must ride to gate	D
Robin answered I'm going at him	G2
I'll kill that fox if it kills me drat him	G2
We'll kill in covert Gerr on now Dane	C
He gripped him tight and he made it plain	C
He slowed him down till he almost stood	D
While his hounds went crash into Mourne End Wood	D
	-
Like a dainty dancer with footing nice	A
The Dane turned side for a leap in twice	A
He cleared the ditch to the red clay bank	G
He rose at the fence as his quarters sank	G
He barged the fence as the bank gave way	R
And down he came in a fall of clay	R
	-
Robin jumped off him and gasped for breath	O2
He said That's lost him as sure as death	O2
They've overrun him Come up the Dane	C
We'll kill him yet if we ride to Spain	C
	-
He scrambled up to his horse's back	G
He thrust through cover he called his pack	G
He cheered them on till they made it good	D
Where the fox had swerved inside the wood	D
	-
The fox knew well as he ran the dark	G
That the headlong hounds were past their mark	G
They had missed his swerve and had overrun	C
But their devilish play was not yet done	C
	-
For a minute he ran and he heard no sound	D
Then a whimper came from a questing hound	D
Then a This way beauties and then Leu Leu	D
The floating laugh of the horn that blew	D
Then the cry again and the crash and rattle	D
Of the shrubs burst back as they ran to battle	D
Till the wood behind seemed risen from root	D
Crying and crashing to give pursuit	D
Till the trees seemed hounds and the air seemed cry	G
And the earth so far that he needs but die	G
Die where he reeled in the woodland dim	G2
With a hound's white grips in the spine of him	G2
For one more burst he could spurt and then	C
Wait for the teeth and the wrench and men	C
	-
He made his spurt for the Mourne End rocks	A
The air blew rank with the taint of fox	A
The yews gave way to a greener space	A
Of great stones strewn in a grassy place	A
And there was his earth at the great grey shoulder	R
Sunk in the ground of a granite boulder	R
A dry deep burrow with a rocky roof	Q2
Proof against crowbars terrier proof	Q2
Life to the dying rest for bones	A
	-
The earth was stopped it was filled with stones	A
	-
Then for a moment his courage failed	D
His eyes looked up as his body quailed	D
Then the coming of death which all things dread	D
Made him run for the wood ahead	D
	-
The taint of fox was rank on the air	R
He knew as he ran there were foxes there	R
His strength was broken his heart was bursting	G
His bones were rotten his throat was thirsting	G
His feet were reeling his brush was thick	G
From dragging the mud and his brain was sick	G
	-
He thought as he ran of his old delight	D
In the wood in the moon in an April night	D
His happy hunting his winter loving	G
The smells of things in the midnight roving	G
The look of his dainty nosing red	D
Clean felled dam with her footpad's tread	D
Of his sire so swift so game so cunning	G
With craft in his brain and power of running	G
Their fights of old when his teeth drew blood	D
Now he was sick with his coat all mud	D
	-
He crossed the covert he crawled the bank	G
To a meuse in the thorns and there he sank	G
With his ears flexed back and his teeth shown white	D
In a rat's resolve for a dying bite	D
	-
And there as he lay he saw the vale	D
That a struggling sunlight silvered pale	D
The Deerlip Brook like a strip of steel	D
The Nun's Wood Yews where the rabbits squeal	D
The great grass square of the Roman Fort	D
And the smoke in the elms at Crendon Court	D
	-
And above the smoke in the elm tree tops	A
Was the beech clump's blur Blown Hilcote Copse	A
Where he and his mates had long made merry	D
In the bloody joys of the rabbit herry	D
	-
And there as he lay and looked the cry	D
Of the hounds at head came rousing by	D
He bent his bones in the blackthorn dim	G2
	-
But the cry of the hounds was not for him	G2
Over the fence with a crash they went	D
Belly to grass with a burning scent	D
Then came Dansey yelling to Bob	G
They've changed Oh damn it now here's a job	G
And Bob yelled back Well we cannot turn 'em	G2
It's jumper and Antic Tom we'll learn 'em	G2
We must just go on and I hope we kill	D
They followed hounds down the Mourne End Hill	D
	-
The fox lay still in the rabbit meuse	A
On the dry brown dust of the plumes of yews	A
In the bottom below a brook went by	D
Blue in a patch like a streak of sky	D
There one by one with a clink of stone	C
Came a red or dark coat on a horse half blown	C
And man to man with a gasp for breath	O2
Said Lord what a run I'm fagged to death	O2
	-
After an hour no riders came	G2
The day drew by like an ending game	G2
A robin sang from a pufft red breast	D
The fox lay quiet and took his rest	D
A wren on a tree stump carolled clear	D
Then the starlings wheeled in a sudden sheer	D
The rooks came home to the twiggy hive	R2
In the elm tree tops which the winds do drive	R2
Then the noise of the rooks fell slowly still	D
And the lights came out in the Clench Brook Mill	D
Then a pheasant cocked then an owl began	C
With the cry that curdles the blood of man	C
	-
The stars grew bright as the yews grew black	G
The fox rose stifly and stretched his back	G
He flaired the air then he padded out	D
To the valley below him dark as doubt	D
Winter thin with the young green crops	A
For old Cold Crendon and Hilcote Copse	A
	-
As he crossed the meadows at Naunton Larking	G
The dogs in town all started barking	G
For with feet all bloody and flanks all foam	G2
The hounds and the hunt were limping home	G2
Limping home in the dark dead beaten	C
The hounds all rank from a fox they'd eaten	C
Dansey saying to Robin Dawe	H
The fastest and longest I ever saw	H
And Robin answered Oh Tom 'twas good	D
I thought they'd changed in the Mourne End Wood	D
But now I feel that they did not change	H2
We've had a run that was great and strange	H2
And to kill in the end at dusk on grass	A
We'll turn to the Cock and take a glass	A
For the hounds poor souls are past their forces	A
And a gallon of ale for our poor horses	A
And some bits of bread for the hounds poor things	A
After all they've done for they've done like kings	A
Would keep them going till we get in	C
We had it alone from the Nun's Wood Whin	C
Then Tom replied If they changed or not	D
There've been few runs longer and none more hot	D
We shall talk of to day until we die	D
	-
The stars grew bright in the winter sky	D
The wind came keen with a tang of frost	D
The brook was troubled for new things lost	D
The copse was happy for old things found	D
The fox came home and he went to ground	D
	-
And the hunt came home and the hounds were fed	D
They climbed to their bench and went to bed	D
The horses in stable loved their straw	H
Good night my beauties said Robin Dawe	H
	-
Then the moon came quiet and flooded full	D
Light and beauty on clouds like wool	D
On a feasted fox at rest from hunting	G
In the beech wood grey where the brocks were grunting	G
	-
The beech wood grey rose dim in the night	D
With moonlight fallen in pools of light	D
The long dead leaves on the ground were rimed	D
A clock struck twelve and the church bells chimed	D

John Masefield

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