_Hear! hear! hear!_ Listen! the word Of the mocking-bird! _Hear! hear! hear! I will make all clear; I will let you know Where the footfalls go That through the thicket and over the hill Allure, allure._ How the bird-voice cleaves Through the weft of leaves With a leap and a thrill Like the flash of a weaver's shuttle, swift and sudden and sure!
And la, he is gone--even while I turn The wisdom of his runes to learn. He knows the mystery of the wood, The secret of the solitude; But he will not tell, he will not tell, For all he promises so well.
Word of a little one born in the West,-- How like a sea-bird it comes from the sea, Out of the league-weary waters' unrest Blown with white wings, for a token, to me!
Blown with a skriel and a flurry of plumes (Sea-spray and flight-rapture whirled in a gleam!) Here for a sign of the comrade that looms Large in the mist of my love as I dream.
He with the heart of an old violin, Vibrant at every least stir in the place, Lyric of woods where the thrushes begin, Wave-questing wanderer, still for a space,--
What will the child of his be (so I muse), Wood-flower, sea-flower, star-flower rare? Worlds here to choose from, and which will she choose, She whose first world is an armsweep of air?
Baby Karlene, you are wondering now Why you can't reach the great moon that you see Just at your hand on the edge of the bough That waves in the window-pane--how can it be?
All your world yet hardly lies out of reach Of ten little fingers and ten little toes. You are a seed for the sky there to teach (And the sun and the wind and the rain) as it grows.
Just a green leaf piercing up to the day, Pale fleck of June to come, just to be seen Through the rough crumble of rubble and clay Lifting its loveliness, dawn-child, Karlene!
Fragile as fairycraft, dew-dream of love,-- Never a clod that has marred the slim stalk, Never a stone but its frail fingers move, Bent on the blue sky and nothing can balk!
Blue sky and wind-laughters, that is thy dream. Ah the brave days when thy leafage shall toss High where gold noondays and sunsets a-stream Mix with its moving and kiss it across.
There the great clouds shall go lazily by, Coo! thee with shadows and dazzle with shine, Drench thee with rain-guerdons, bless thee with sky, Till all the knowledge of earth shall be thine.