When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed

When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed
Ray Douglas Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s first ever poetry collection, available in ebook for the first time.Carried into strange and enticing realms by his fantastic stories, the multitudes of his admirers have never doubted that the author of Dandelion Wine, The Martian Chronicles, and other uniquely imaginative works of short and long fiction is a poet. But, even so, the intensity of feeling, the imaginative range, the variety of subject and style in this, Ray Bradbury’s first collection of poems, amaze.In ‘Remembrance’, the poet experiences a piercing gratitude when he roots out of a squirrel’s hole a long-forgotten message addressed, when he was twelve, to his later self. In ‘Old Mars, Then Be a Hearth to Us,’ the master of science fiction carries us closer to that glowing planet. In ‘Emily Dickinson, Where Are You? Herman Melville Called Your Name Last Night in His Sleep!’ the literary fantasist delights us with his romantic imagination. Lose yourself in the delights of science fiction’s master storyteller.

WHEN ELEPHANTS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOMED

Ray Bradbury

Copyright (#ulink_0f129ee8-ea1e-5c54-9c95-42b2047e2942)

HarperVoyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Copyright © Ray Bradbury 1954, 1957, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973

Cover design by Mike Topping.

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014 Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com

Ray Bradbury asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Ebook Edition © JULY 2013 ISBN: 9780007539932

Version: 2014–07–18

Dedication (#ulink_60a72eb8-a5f6-541e-ae28-0ac69cbf6b9a)

THIS ONE TO THE MEMORY OF

my grandmother Minnie Davis Bradbury and my grandfather Samuel Hinkston Bradbury, and my brother Samuel and my sister Elizabeth Jane, long lost in the years but now remembered.

Table of Contents

Cover (#ud150df78-373e-5ef6-84b0-82d0b743aff9)

Title Page (#u5c54d855-7821-5881-9737-66909aaeb474)

Copyright (#ulink_1d187da3-83ab-5cad-8f88-56496cec8f43)

Dedication (#ulink_63248f95-556a-5a2d-adcf-9a3172dda23c)

Remembrance (#ulink_f60288fc-b33a-59a4-94b2-eac738af4e76)

Pretend at Being Blind, Which Calls Truth Near (#ulink_5e20ec09-4d17-5c1f-9ddf-808df0eaf1b8)

The Boys Across the Street Are Driving My Young Daughter Mad (#ulink_d0567d92-3dd3-572c-9a7a-a94eca21011e)

Old Ahab’s Friend, and Friend to Noah, Speaks His Piece (#ulink_85deded9-de68-59f0-a7e3-b8a264fbc754)

When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed (#ulink_e7ea2966-637c-5542-a4a6-e7c2be2c26c8)

Darwin, the Curious (#ulink_a76a0b5b-b558-5ab2-9f0e-a2cb799fc832)

Darwin, in the Fields (#ulink_dfba17bd-0a05-57eb-9e48-9cd6a327a5fa)

Darwin, Wandering Home at Dawn (#ulink_9b10630b-0e50-5199-a8dc-dd2a016a8ff3)

Evidence (#ulink_8d6dc2de-3f31-5a04-8220-672ce2cc3d92)

Telling Where the Sweet Gums Are (#ulink_7ad62ee3-83b5-505e-8bc3-8e40eeef4130)

Emily Dickinson, Where Are You? Herman Melville Called Your Name Last Night in His Sleep! (#ulink_4205c289-092c-5a1b-9aee-dd8aa42212d4)

O Give a Fig for Newton, Praise for Him! (#litres_trial_promo)

I Was the Last, the Very Last (#litres_trial_promo)

Man Is the Animal That Cries (#litres_trial_promo)

N (#litres_trial_promo)

Air to Lavoisier (#litres_trial_promo)

Women Know Themselves; All Men Wonder (#litres_trial_promo)

Death in Mexico (#litres_trial_promo)

All Flesh Is One; What Matter Scores? (#litres_trial_promo)

The Machines, Beyond Shylock (#litres_trial_promo)

That Beast upon the Wire (#litres_trial_promo)

Christ, Old Student in a New School (#litres_trial_promo)

This Time of Kites (#litres_trial_promo)

If You Will Wait Just Long Enough, All Goes (#litres_trial_promo)

For a Daughter, Traveling (#litres_trial_promo)