THE WAKING FARM 



'T'O battle with the dimming stars 



Light-lances leap along the hills; 

 Safe in a tree beside the bars 



A robin, waking, cheerily trills. 

 Not yet the sun, not yet the stir 



Gray dew lies lucent on the grass ; 

 And huddled weanlings drowsing chir-r, 



As stealthy vagrant footfalls pass. 



V/^ET roses white, and roses red, 



Flash star-wise out from green -wreathed gloom, 

 And vines, in tendriled curtains spread, 



Are 'broidered all with purple bloom. 

 Alike the low leaf and the high 



Dance merrily in ruffling air, 

 And one lone lily breathes her sigh 



Of incense, like a nun at prayer. 



TN wafts the earth-scent, fine and faint, 



And, subtle as a maiden^s mind, 

 Rises to make us know the plaint 



Of Evewith Eden left behind. 

 But hark the hoof-beats! Down the mead, 



A frolic foal, in plunging run, 

 Neighs to his dam with lifted head, 



And bids her greet the rising sun. 



