Runners

Simon gave Mum a hand to plant her runner beans last week, and they're already showing signs of progress. Last night I was reading her Ronald Blythe's weekly 'Word from Wormingford' piece, from the Church Times (2 May 2014); he talks about building a wigwam for his runner beans, from the branches of his bamboo. And that led to her quoting the line about 'nine bean-rows' from W B Yeats' poem, The Lake Isle of Innisfree:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

I love the description of how 'peace comes dropping slow'.