Kingley Vale

I hear the songs of ancient man

So clearly in this place:

A woman sings a lullably

To sleep her teething child.

Such purity of purpose

Still calms us by and by.

Unseen, her man is smiling as he works;

No better sound can be found

Than the young mother singing,

And all around harsh men sigh

With the joy that she is bringing.

The hills are deep that stand so high

With memories asleep and the shepherd’s cry,

The yew trees dark in Kingley Vale,

Long centuries mark the silent tale.

(Kingley Vale is by the South Downs in Sussex, England.)

This poem is taken from ‘A Company of Strangers’ by Stephen Morley.