Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 3 — Quatrains

_Moths and Fireflies_ Since Fancy taught me in her school of spells I know her tricks: These are not moths at all, Nor fireflies; but masking Elfland belles Whose link-boys torch them to Titania’s ball.

II

_Autumn Wildflowers_ Like colored lanterns swung in Elfin towers, Wild morning-glories light the tangled ways, And, like the rosy rockets of the Fays, Burns the sloped crimson of the cardinal-flowers.

III

_The Wind in the Pines_ When winds go organing through the pines On hill and headland, darkly gleaming, Meseems I hear sonorous lines Of Iliads that the woods are dreaming.

IV

_Opportunity_ Behold a hag whom Life denies a kiss As he rides questward in knighterrant-wise;

Only when he hath passed her is it his To know, too late, the Fairy in disguise.

V

_Dreams_ They mock the present and they haunt the past, And in the future there is naught agleam With hope, the soul desires, that at last The heart, pursuing, does not find a dream.