To Fox and Hounds

The hearse set off through the mansion gates

Pulled by a pair of greys,

Stepping high, so they’d not be late

For the church’s hymns of praise,

Lord Gordon Knox on the catafalque

Awaiting his final ride,

Just down the hill where the graveyard spilled

And spread on the eastern side.

But staring out from behind the grass,

From between each tree and bush,

There gleamed the beam of a hundred eyes

In a sacred kind of hush,

The word was out it was Gordon Knox

Set to take his pride of place,

And from the woods had come every fox

To afford his lordship grace.

For Gordon had been the Master of

The Aldermaston Hunt,

Had chased them across the countryside

More than a man can count,

But somehow managed to lose the fox

As it turned, became covert,

And often seemed to confuse the hounds

As the fox returned to earth.

Three generations had come and gone

Since the young Amelia Knox,

Had left to walk in the countryside

And found a secluded copse,

The peasants say that she fell asleep 

By a well protected earth,

And Reynard Fox had uncovered her

Before she had given birth.

So Raymond was the first of the breed

In a mix of fox and man,

A Knox by name but a fox by shame

When his mother’s guilt began,

And when he had a son of his own

He could see that the eyes were sly,

And every fox in the countryside

Could tell him the reason why.

Gordon carried the bloodline on

Though he rode to fox and hounds,

He ruled the hunt with an iron fist

They were hunting in his grounds,

And every time that the quarry went

He would make a lame excuse,

The scent was wrong, or the wind was strong

Or the hounds were far too loose.

And every time that the Master died

And the hearse had trundled by,

The foxes all came out to see,

In a way, they said goodbye,

But Gordon had left no son behind

Just a daughter, Elspeth Knox,

And I heard they’d given up on her

Till they found her in some copse.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Adiyah]

I enjoyd reading ur wrk..:)

[Barbz]

After reading this illogical example of poetic perfection, I can only quote Albert Einstein..."Logic will get you from A to Z, imagination will get you everywhere" Weird, but thoroughly enjoyable. Never failing Rhyme and Metre.....Barbz