The poem
The eye can hardly pick them out From the cold shade they shelter in, Till wind distresses tail and main; Then one crops grass, and moves about - The other seeming to look on - And stands anonymous again
Yet fifteen years ago, perhaps Two dozen distances surficed To fable them: faint afternoons Of Cups and Stakes and Handicaps, Whereby their names were artificed To inlay faded, classic Junes -
Silks at the start: against the sky Numbers and parasols: outside, Squadrons of empty cars, and heat, And littered grass : then the long cry Hanging unhushed till it subside To stop-press columns on the street.
Do memories plague their ears like flies? They shake their heads. Dusk brims the shadows. Summer by summer all stole away, The starting-gates, the crowd and cries - All but the unmolesting meadows. Almanacked, their names live; they
Have slipped their names, and stand at ease, Or gallop for what must be joy, And not a fieldglass sees them home, Or curious stop-watch prophesies: Only the grooms, and the grooms boy, With bridles in the evening come.
I find this one of the most beautiful, subtle, and touching poems I have read.
This poem explores the fate of retired racehorses, which were once popular and well-groomed, but which have now been put out to grass in a field - and in fact out to die. It makes one think about old age in humans - how we are sidelined when we are no longer wanted
At Grass
I think this is the most beautiful and evocative poem in the English language.