Horseplay Category

Boot and Saddle

A woman on horseback
Today’s poetry was written by Robert Browning and was published in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895 in 1895.

Boot and Saddle

Boot, saddle, to horse, and away!
Rescue my Castle, before the hot day
Brightens the blue from its silvery grey,

(Chorus) “Boot, saddle, to horse, and away!”

Ride past the suburbs, asleep as you’d say;
Many’s the friend there, will listen and pray
“God’s luck to gallants that strike up the lay,

(Chorus) “Boot, saddle, to horse, and away!”
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Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Woman on a horse at night

Today’s bit of horse in poetry was composed by William Wordsworth in 1798. While it isn’t about horses, they do play a part in the tale he weaves.

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Strange fits of passion have I known:
And I will dare to tell,
But in the lover’s ear alone,
What once to me befell.

When she I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening-moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
All over the wide lea;
With quickening pace my horse drew nigh
Those paths so dear to me.
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All in Green My Love Went Riding

Woman in green on a horse

Today’s poetry was written by E.E. Cummings and published in Tulips and Chimneys in 1923. This poem is thought to be an allusion to Chaucer’s The Knights Tale.

All in Green My Love Went Riding

All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.

four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the merry deer ran before.

Fleeter be they than dappled dreams
the swift sweet deer
the red rare deer.

Horn at hip went my love riding
riding the echo down
into the silver dawn.
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