Tuesday, 20 January 2015

TO A CHILD By Sophie Jewett

The leaves talked in the twilight, dear;  
   Hearken the tale they told:  
How in some far-off place and year,  
   Before the world grew old,

I was a dreaming forest tree,
   You were a wild, sweet bird
Who sheltered at the heart of me
   Because the north wind stirred;

How, when the chiding gale was still,  
   When peace fell soft on fear,
You stayed one golden hour to fill
   My dream with singing, dear.

To-night the self-same songs are sung  
   The first green forest heard;
My heart and the gray world grow young—

   To shelter you, my bird.

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