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GREEN MAN IN THE GARDEN
By Charles Causley
Green man in the garden
Staring from the tree,
Why do you look so long and hard
Through the pane at me?
Your eyes are dark as holly,
Of sycamore your horns,
Your bones are made of elder-branch,
Your teeth are made of thorns.
Your hat is made of ivy-leaf,
Of bark your dancing shoes,
And evergreen and green and green
Your jacket and shirt and trews.
“Leave your house and leave your land
And throw away the key,
And never look behind,” he creaked,
“And come and live with me.”
I bolted up the window,
I bolted up the door,
I drew the blind that I should find
The green man never more.
But when I softly turned the stair
As I went up to bed,
I saw the green man standing there.
“Sleep well, my friend,” he said.
Charles Stanley Causley, CBE, FRSL (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) was a Cornish poet, schoolmaster and writer. His work is noted for its simplicity and directness and for its associations with folklore, especially when linked to his native Cornwall
Causley was born at Launceston in Cornwall and was educated there and at a teacher training college in Peterborough. His father died in 1924 from long-standing injuries from the First World War. Largely because of this, Causley had to leave school at 15 to earn money for the family, working as an office boy during his early years.Causley later wrote about his wartime experiences in his poetry, and also in a book of short stories, Hands to Dance and Skylark.[1] His first collection of poems, Farewell, Aggie Weston[2] (1951) contained his "Song of the Dying Gunner A.A.1en.m.wikipedia.org/...