32
WATCHING THE WEDDING.
I forget — to stain with sorrow
This clear-colored holiday.
Yesterday and the to-morrow
Have no robin on their spray.
Can you tell me where I'm going, winding
down the woodland way?
No, Sir Squirrel, you 've no notion,
With your bushy tail a-swell.
You may make a fine commotion
In the branches where you dwell.
You may chatter till the nuts fall. I can keep
my secret well.
Holding back these saplings pliant,
I can catch a perfume sweet ;
I can see my rock, the giant,
Crouching in the noonday heat,
With the last pale Mayflowers dying clustered
round his shaggy feet.
And above there is the highway,
And beyond there is the church.
They will not be looking my way,
Even if this friendly birch
Did not shield me as completely as a bird upon
her perch.
Little dreameth she who lingers
Here, and thou — thou dreamest less,