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Robert Laurence Binyon - The ConvictRobert Laurence Binyon - The Convict
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By the warm road--side, where chestnut and thorn The brightness shaded, supine, at ease, A felon, freed that morn, Lay idle, and wondered, gazing up through the trees. O strange no more to be one of a band Numbered and known; to lose the measure Of day divided and planned: To think for the morrow, to choose work or pleasure. His ear the jostling roar of the street Amazed: he felt the crowd like a load; And welcomed, refuge sweet, Deserted suburb and silent shady road. For now, with his hands habitual stones Of the pavement he touched: close to the wall He nestled, and felt to his bones The warmth, and the shadow cool on his forehead fall. And catching a leaf from the chestnut strayed, He held it, glowing green in the light, Transparent, with veins inlaid; And thrust the world and its vastness away from sight. Children from school, as they passed him, eyed His shorn temples, and whispering turned To mock him: he on his side, Abstracted, his limbs disposed to a slumber earned. A grave citizen, homeward bound, Perceived him, as negligent still he lay, And swerved askance, and frowned, And crossed to the opposite pavement and went his way. But warming him shone the indifferent noon; And chestnut and thorn on his sleeping head In the careless glory of June Scattered their delicate blossom of white and red.
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