UPON A DAY 225 



dweller has himself said since of this same day ? He 

 said that on this day he did not find his way back to 

 the tent until long after the dew had settled down 

 upon the meadows, the summer moon had risen on 

 the river, and the barn owl had set out anew in quest 

 of mice; that he remembered this day especially well 

 because of some lines which came to him while yet 

 he lay awake. They were these : 



Brook tinkling clear. 

 The close defences of thy woven bowers 

 Are sweet and spangled through. Here let me lie, 

 And win thy secrets from the careless flowers, 

 Who take them from thee all too easily. 

 No wiles of love shall cheat my tongue ; no fear. 

 None — though the tidal sea itself should clamour here. 



Sing, ripple, sing — 

 But I have seen thy brown and seething flood 

 Rouse the big salmon out beyond the nets — 

 A mile across the blue. And I have stood 

 Where floodgates fail and death his pleasure gets. 

 Though here — 50 kind thy court — the rudest thing 

 Is the small tyrant minnow deftly skirmishing. 



And ere another verse could frame itself he was 

 asleep. 



