| |
| OH I longed, when I went in the woods today, | |
| To see the fauns come out and play, | |
| To see a satyr try to seize | |
| A dryad’s waist—and bark his knees, | |
| To see a river-nymph waylay | 5 |
| And shock him with a dash of spray!— | |
| And I teased, like a child, by brooks and trees: | |
| “Come back again! We need you! Please! | |
| Come back and teach us how to play!” | |
| But nowhere in the woods were they. | 10 |
| |
| I found, when I went in the town today, | |
| A thousand people on their way | |
| To offices and factories— | |
| And never a single soul at ease; | |
| And how could I help but sigh and say: | 15 |
| “What can it profit them, how can it pay | |
| To strain the eye with rivalries | |
| Until the dark is all it sees?— | |
| Or to manage, more than others may, | |
| To store the wasted gain away?” | 20 |
| |
| But one of the crowd looked up today, | |
| With pointed brows. I heard him say: | |
| “Out of the meadows and rivers and trees | |
| We fauns and many companies | |
| Of nymphs have come. And we are these, | 25 |
| These people, each upon his way, | |
| Looking for work, working for pay— | |
| And paying all our energies | |
| To earn true love … For, seeming gay, | |
| “Once we were sad,” I heard him say. | 30 |
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