Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 4 — Song of the Elf

I

Where the poppies, with their shields, Sentinel Forest and the harvest fields, In the bell Of a blossom, fair to see, There I stall the bumblebee, My good stud;

There I stable him and hold, Harness him with hairy gold;

There I ease his burly back Of the honey and its sack Filched from bloom and bud.

II

Where the glow-worm lights its lamp, There I lie;

Where, above the grasses damp, Moths go by;

Now within the fussy brook, Where the waters wind and crook Round the rocks, I go sailing down the gloom Straddling light a wisp of broom;

Or, beneath the owlet moon, Trip it to the cricket's tune Tossing back my locks.

III

Ere the crowfoot on the lawn Lifts its head, Or the glow-worm's light be gone, Dim and dead, In a cobweb-hammock I Swing between two ferns and lie Hid away;

Where the drowsy musk-rose blows And a sleepy runnel flows, In the land of Faery, There I rock, where none can see, All the summer day.