A poem by C. H. Sisson
Knole
The white hill-side is pricked with antlers And the deer wade to me through the snow. From John Donne’s church the muffled and galoshed Patiently to their holy dinners go.
And never do those antlered heads reflect On the gentle flanks where in autumn they put their seed Nor Christians on the word which, that very hour, Their upturned faces or their hearts received.
But spring will bring the heavy doe to bed; The fawn will wobble and soon after leap. Those others will die at this or the next year’s turn And find the resurrection encased in sleep.
C. H. Sisson (1914-2003)
Note: The church is Saint Nicholas, Sevenoaks, which became Sisson’s parish church after moving from Dunston Green, and where John Donne was rector in the early seventeenth century. Knole itself is the country house with expansive grounds in which deer are kept, situated across the High Street from Saint Nicholas.
Image: 4 Red Stags in the Snow by Vlad Stokolovsky.
