{
 "id": "edward-thomas/lob",
 "title": "Lob",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 32,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edward-thomas_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collected_Poems/LMsEAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Two_Poems/3ycPAAAAQAAJ"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 151,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 56,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "At hawthorn-time in Wiltshire travelling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In search of something chance would never bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An old man’s face, by life and weather cut",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And coloured⁠—rough, brown, sweet as any nut⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A land face, sea-blue-eyed⁠—hung in my mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I had left him many a mile behind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All he said was: “Nobody can’t stop ’ee. It’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A footpath, right enough. You see those bits",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mounds⁠—that’s where they opened up the barrows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sixty years since, while I was scaring sparrows.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They thought as there was something to find there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But couldn’t find it, by digging, anywhere.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To turn back then and seek him, where was the use?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There were three Manningfords⁠—Abbots, Bohun, and Bruce:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whether Alton, not Manningford, it was,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My memory could not decide, because",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was both Alton Barnes and Alton Priors.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All had their churches, graveyards, farms, and byres,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lurking to one side up the paths and lanes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seldom well seen except by aeroplanes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when bells rang, or pigs squealed, or cocks crowed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then only heard. Ages ago the road",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Approached. The people stood and looked and turned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor asked it to come nearer, nor yet learned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To move out there and dwell in all men’s dust.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet withal they shot the weathercock, just",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because ’twas he crowed out of tune, they said:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So now the copper weathercock is dead.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If they had reaped their dandelions and sold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Them fairly, they could have afforded gold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Many years passed, and I went back again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among those villages, and looked for men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who might have known my ancient. He himself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had long been dead or laid upon the shelf,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought. One man I asked about him roared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At my description: “ ’Tis old Bottlesford",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He means, Bill.” But another said: “Of course,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was Jack Button up at the White Horse.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’s dead, sir, these three years.” This lasted till",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A girl proposed Walker of Walker’s Hill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Old Adam Walker. Adam’s Point you’ll see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Marked on the maps.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“That was her roguery,”",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "The next man said. He was a squire’s son",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who loved wild bird and beast, and dog and gun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For killing them. He had loved them from his birth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One with another, as he loved the earth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The man may be like Button, or Walker, or",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Bottlesford, that you want, but far more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He sounds like one I saw when I was a child.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I could almost swear to him. The man was wild",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wandered. His home was where he was free.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Everybody has met one such man as he.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Does he keep clear old paths that no one uses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But once a life-time when he loves or muses?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He is English as this gate, these flowers, this mire.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when at eight years old Lob-lie-by-the-fire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came in my books, this was the man I saw.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He has been in England as long as dove and daw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calling the wild cherry tree the merry tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rose campion Bridget-in-her-bravery;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in a tender mood he, as I guess,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Christened one flower Love-in-idleness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while he walked from Exeter to Leeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One April called all cuckoo-flowers Milkmaids.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From him old herbal Gerard learnt, as a boy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To name wild clematis the Traveller’s-joy.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our blackbirds sang no English till his ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Told him they called his Jan Toy ‘Pretty dear.’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(She was Jan Toy the Lucky, who, having lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A shilling, and found a penny loaf, rejoiced.)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For reasons of his own to him the wren",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is Jenny Pooter. Before all other men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas he first called the Hog’s Back the Hog’s Back.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Mother Dunch’s Buttocks should not lack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their name was his care. He too could explain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Totteridge and Totterdown and Juggler’s Lane:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He knows, if anyone. Why Tumbling Bay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inland in Kent, is called so, he might say.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But little he says compared with what he does.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If ever a sage troubles him he will buzz",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a beehive to conclude the tedious fray:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sage, who knows all languages, runs away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet Lob has thirteen hundred names for a fool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And though he never could spare time for school",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To unteach what the fox so well expressed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On biting the cock’s head off⁠—Quietness is best⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He can talk quite as well as anyone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After his thinking is forgot and done.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He first of all told someone else’s wife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For a farthing she’d skin a flint and spoil a knife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Worth sixpence skinning it. She heard him speak:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘She had a face as long as a wet week’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said he, telling the tale in after years.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With blue smock and with gold rings in his ears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes he is a pedlar, not too poor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To keep his wit. This is tall Tom that bore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The logs in, and with Shakespeare in the hall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once talked, when icicles hung by the wall.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As Herne the Hunter he has known hard times.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On sleepless nights he made up weather rhymes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which others spoilt. And, Hob being then his name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He kept the hog that thought the butcher came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bring his breakfast. ‘You thought wrong,’ said Hob.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When there were kings in Kent this very Lob,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose sheep grew fat and he himself grew merry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wedded the king’s daughter of Canterbury;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For he alone, unlike squire, lord, and king,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watched a night by her without slumbering;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He kept both waking. When he was but a lad",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He won a rich man’s heiress, deaf, dumb, and sad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By rousing her to laugh at him. He carried",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His donkey on his back. So they were married.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while he was a little cobbler’s boy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He tricked the giant coming to destroy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shrewsbury by flood. ‘And how far is it yet?’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The giant asked in passing. ‘I forget;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But see these shoes I’ve worn out on the road",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we’re not there yet.’ He emptied out his load",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of shoes for mending. The giant let fall from his spade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The earth for damming Severn, and thus made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Wrekin hill; and little Ercall hill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose where the giant scraped his boots. While still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So young, our Jack was chief of Gotham’s sages.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But long before he could have been wise, ages",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earlier than this, while he grew thick and strong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ate his bacon, or, at times, sang a song",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And merely smelt it, as Jack the giant-killer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He made a name. He too ground up the miller,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Yorkshireman who ground men’s bones for flour.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Do you believe Jack dead before his hour?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or that his name is Walker, or Bottlesford,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or Button, a mere clown, or squire, or lord?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The man you saw⁠—Lob-lie-by-the-fire, Jack Cade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jack Smith, Jack Moon, poor Jack of every trade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Young Jack, or old Jack, or Jack What-d’ye-call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jack-in-the-hedge, or Robin-run-by-the-wall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Robin Hood, Ragged Robin, lazy Bob,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One of the lords of No Man’s Land, good Lob⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although he was seen dying at Waterloo,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hastings, Agincourt, and Sedgemoor too⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lives yet. He never will admit he is dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till millers cease to grind men’s bones for bread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not till our weathercock crows once again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I remove my house out of the lane",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On to the road.” With this he disappeared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In hazel and thorn tangled with old-man’s-beard.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But one glimpse of his back, as there he stood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Choosing his way, proved him of old Jack’s blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Young Jack perhaps, and now a Wiltshireman",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As he has oft been since his days began.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}