"Are you flying through the night Looking where to find me?" "Nay; I travel with a light For the folks _behind_ me."
"Is skimming o'er a stagnant pool Your only occupation?" "Ah, no: 'tis at this Summer School I get my education."
A bow across the sky Another in the river, Whence swallows upward fly, Like arrows from a quiver.
Sighed the languid Moon to the Morning Star: "O little maid, how late you are!" "I couldn't rise from my couch," quoth she, "While the Man-in-the-Moon was looking at me."
"O lady cloud, why are you weeping?" I said. "Because," she made answer, "my rain-beau is dead."
Dance to the beat of the rain, little Fern, And spread out your palms again, And say, "Tho' the sun Hath my vesture spun, He had laboured, alas, in vain, But for the shade That the Cloud hath made, And the gift of the Dew and the Rain." Then laugh and upturn All your fronds, little Fern, And rejoice in the beat of the rain!
It is the mountain to the sea That makes a messenger of me; And, lest I loiter on the way And lose what I am sent to say, He sets his reverie to song, And bids me sing it all day long. Farewell! for here the stream is slow, And I have many a mile to go.
I sat with chill December Beside the evening fire. "And what do you remember," I ventured to inquire, "Of seasons long forsaken?" He answered in amaze, "My age you have mistaken; I've lived but thirty _days_."
Love goes playing hide-and-seek 'Mid the roses on her cheek, With a little imp of Laughter, Who, the while he follows after, Leaves the footprints that we trace All about the Kissing-place.
The rosy mouth and rosy toe Of little baby brother Until about a month ago Had never met each other; But nowadays the neighbours sweet, In every sort of weather, Half way with rosy fingers meet, To kiss and play together.
'Tis all the way to Toe-town, Beyond the Knee-high hill, That Baby has to travel down To see the soldiers drill.
One, two, three, four, five, a-row-- A captain and his men-- And on the other side, you know, Are six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
The Star that watched you in your sleep Has just put out his light. "Good-day, to you on earth," he said, "Is here in heaven Good-night.
"But tell the Baby when he wakes To watch for my return; For I'll hang out my lamp again When his begins to burn."