Poems

ime ; For we thought they are only hidden, They would never surely go From this green earth all unbidden, And the children that love them so; Though they come not around us leaping, As they did when They and the World Were young, we shall find them sleeping Within some broad leaf curled ; For the lily its white doors closes But only over the bee ; And we looked through the summer roses, Leaf by leaf, so carefully; But we thought, rolled up we shall find them Among mosses old and dry; From gossamer threads that bind them They will start like the butterfly, All winged: so we went forth seeking, Yet still they have kept unseen; Though we think our feet have been keeping The track where they have been, For we saw where their dance went flying O'er the pastures snowy white, Their seats and their tables lying O'erthrown in their sudden flight. And they, too, have had their losses, For we found the goblets white And red in the old spiked mosses, That they drank from overnight; And in the pale horn of the woodbine Was some wine left, clear and bright: But we found," said the children, speaking More quickly, " so many things, That we soon forgot we were seeking ; Forgot all the Fairy rings, Forgot all the stories olden That we hear round the fire at night, Of their gifts and their favours golden, The sunshine was so bright; And the flowers?we found so many, That it almost made us griev...