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Muriel Spark
FOUR POEMS
SHIPTON-UNDER-WYCHWOOD
Under Wychwood the growth and undergrowth
contend and do not mind how things exceptional
meander into landscape. They are drenched under
and under the repetitive green at last.
Fetched into chastity are fond extravagant
and noticeable doings and undertakings
whereover all the rhythms of Cotswold ride.
Ride, and have struck an ever-receding camp
over and over again, redundant time and tenses
disposing of themselves. What horses overtake them?
and what will become of the rare and royal hunters?
Prebend plunges over Plantagenet;
it
is all
over then, with the legions of Rome before
finality, split-hooved, has taken over
Shipton under the forest, concealed in summer.