river-pastures

Updated: July 7, 2026

Charming Idyllists may count the petals of the cuckoo-buds in the river-pastures; and untouched, we admire. But let old Falstaff, as he lies a' dying, "babble o' green fields," and all the long, long thoughts of youth steal over us, like a summer wind. The modern critic, with a philosophic bias, is inclined to quarrel with the obvious human congruity of Shakespeare's utterances.

John Cowper Powys - Visions and Revisions: A Book of Literary Devotions