| |
| ITS friendship and its carelessness | |
| Did lead me many a mile, | |
| Through goat’s-rue, with its dim caress, | |
| And pink and pearl-white smile; | |
| Through crowfoot, with its golden lure, | 5 |
| And promise of far things, | |
| And sorrel with its glance demure | |
| And wide-eyed wonderings. | |
| |
| It led me with its innocence, | |
| As childhood leads the wise, | 10 |
| With elbows here of tattered fence, | |
| And blue of wildflower eyes; | |
| With whispers low of leafy speech, | |
| And brook-sweet utterance; | |
| With bird-like words of oak and beech, | 15 |
| And whisperings clear as Pan’s. | |
| |
| It led me with its childlike charm, | |
| As candor leads desire, | |
| Now with a clasp of blossomy arm, | |
| A butterfly kiss of fire; | 20 |
| Now with a toss of tousled gold, | |
| A barefoot sound of green, | |
| A breath of musk, of mossy mold, | |
| With vague allurements keen. | |
| |
| It led me with remembered things | 25 |
| Into an old-time vale, | |
| Peopled with faëry glimmerings, | |
| And flower-like fancies pale; | |
| Where fungous forms stood, gold and gray, | |
| Each in its mushroom gown, | 30 |
| And, roofed with red, glimpsed far away, | |
| A little toadstool town. | |
| |
| It led me with an idle ease, | |
| A vagabond look and air, | |
| A sense of ragged arms and knees | 35 |
| In weeds grown everywhere; | |
| It led me, as a gypsy leads, | |
| To dingles no one knows, | |
| With beauty burred with thorny seeds, | |
| And tangled wild with rose. | 40 |
| |
| It led me as simplicity | |
| Leads age and its demands, | |
| With bee-beat of its ecstasy, | |
| And berry-stained touch of hands; | |
| With round revealments, puff-ball white, | 45 |
| Through rents of weedy brown, | |
| And petaled movements of delight | |
| In roseleaf limb and gown. | |
| |
| It led me on and on and on, | |
| Beyond the Far Away, | 50 |
| Into a world long dead and gone,— | |
| The world of Yesterday: | |
| A faëry world of memory, | |
| Old with its hills and streams, | |
| Wherein the child I used to be | 55 |
| Still wanders with his dreams. | |
| |
