Excerpt
SLEEPYHEAD
As I lay awake in the white moonlight,I heard a faint singing in the wood, "Out of bed, Sleepyhead, Put your white foot, now; Here are we Beneath the tree Singing round the root now."
I looked out of window, in the white moonlight,The leaves were like snow in the wood— "Come away, Child, and play Light with the gnomies; In a mound, Green and round, That's where their home is."
"Honey sweet, Curds to eat, Cream and frumenty, Shells and beads, Poppy seeds, You shall have plenty."
But, as soon as I stooped in the dim moonlight To put on my stocking and my shoe,The sweet shrill singing echoed faintly away, And the grey of the morning peeped through,And instead of the gnomies there came a red robin To sing of the buttercups and dew.
BLUEBELLSWhere the bluebells and the wind are, Fairies in a ring I spied,And I heard a little linnet Singing near beside.
Where the primrose and the dew are— Soon were sped the fairies all:Only now the green turf freshens, And the linnets call.
LOVELOCKSI watched the Lady CarolineBind up her dark and beauteous hair;Her face was rosy in the glass,And 'twixt the coils her hands would pass, White in the candleshine.
Her bottles on the table lay,Stoppered, yet sweet of violet;Her image in the mirror stoopedTo view those locks as lightly looped As cherry boughs in May.
The snowy night lay dim without,I heard the Waits their sweet song sing;The window smouldered keen with frost;Yet still she twisted, sleeked and tossed Her beauteous hair about.
TARTARYIf I were Lord of Tartary, Myself and me alone,My bed should be of ivory, Of beaten gold my throne;And in my court would peacocks flaunt,And in my forests tigers haunt,And in my pools great fishes slant Their fins athwart the sun.
If I were Lord of Tartary, Trumpeters every dayTo every meal should summon me, And in my courtyard bray;And in the evening lamps would shine,Yellow as honey, red as wine,While harp, and flute, and mandoline, Made music sweet and gay.
If I were Lord of Tartary, I'd wear a robe of beads,White, and gold, and green they'd be— And clustered thick as seeds;And ere should wane the morning-star,I'd don my robe and scimitar,And zebras seven should draw my car Through Tartary's dark glades.
Lord of the fruits of Tartary, Her rivers silver-pale!Lord of the hills of Tartary, Glen, thicket, wood, and dale!Her flashing stars, her scented breeze,Her trembling lakes, like foamless seas,Her bird-delighting citron-trees In every purple vale!
THE BUCKLEI had a silver buckle, I sewed it on my shoe,And 'neath a sprig of mistletoe I danced the evening through.
I had a bunch of cowslips, I hid them in a grot,In case the elves should come by night And me remember not....