158
AUTUMN FIRES
In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires,
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fires blaze,
The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!
By R.L. Stevenson
I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
I
wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats high over vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Besides the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the
margin of a bay;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
By William Wordsworth
159
TAILOR
I saw a little Tailor sitting stich, stich, stich, stiching
Cross-legged on the
floor of his kitch, kitch, kitchen.
His thumbs and his fingers so nim, nim, nimble
With his wax and his scissors and his thim, thim, thimble
His silk and his cotton he was thread, thread, threading
For a gown and a coat for a wed, wed, wedding,
His needle flew as swift as a swal, swal, swallow
And his spools and his reels and to fol, fol, follow.
He hummed as he worked a merry dit, dit, dittery:
“The bride is as plump as she’s pret, pret, pretty,
I wouldn’t have her taller
or short, short, shorter,
She can laugh like the falling of wat, wat, water,
She can put a cherry-pie, togeth, geth, gether,
She can dance as light as a feath, feath, feather
She can sign as sweet, as a fid, fid, fiddle,
As she is twenty inches round the mid, mid, middle.”
OF ANIMALS’ HOUSES
Of animals’ houses
Two sorts are found –
Those
which are square ones
And those which are round
A snail’s shell is curly,
A bird’s nest round;
Rabbits have twisty burrows
Underground.
Square is a hen-house,
A kennel a sty:
Cows have square houses
And so have I.
But the
fish in the bowl
And the fish in the sea –
Their houses are round
As a house can be.
160
LAVANDER
“Lavander’s blue, diddle diddle” –
So goes the song;
All round her bush, diddle, diddle,
Butterflies throng
They love her well, diddle, diddle,
So do the bees;
While she herself diddle, diddle,
Sways in the breeze!
MICE
I think mice are rather nice.
Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven’t any
Chins at all.
Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white,
They run about
The house at night.
They nibble things
They shouldn’t touch
And no one seems
To like them much.
But I think mice are very nice.
MUD
Mud is very nice
to feel
All squishy-squash between the toes!
I’d rather wade in widdy mud
Than smell a yellow rose.
Nobody else but the rosebush knows
How nice mud feels
Between the toes.