Kentucky poems / Madison Cawein; with an introd. by Edmund Gosse [electronic text]
About this Item
Title
Kentucky poems / Madison Cawein; with an introd. by Edmund Gosse [electronic text]
Author
Cawein, Madison Julius, 1865-1914
Publication
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
1903
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"Kentucky poems / Madison Cawein; with an introd. by Edmund Gosse [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAD1892.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 6, 2024.
Pages
THE MILL-WATER
THE water-flag and wild cane grow'Round banks whereon the sunbeams sowFantastic gold when, on its shores,The wind sighs through the sycamores.
In one green angle, just in reach,Between a willow-tree and beech,Moss-grown and leaky lies a boatThe thick-grown lilies keep afloat.
And through its waters, half awake,Slow swims the spotted water-snake;And near its edge, like some gray streak,Stands gaunt the still fly-up-the-creek.
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Between the lily-pads and bloomsThe water-spirits set their looms,That weave the lace-like light that dimsThe glimmering leaves of under limbs.
Each lily is the hiding-placeOf some dim wood-imp's elvish face,That watches you with gold-green eyesWhere bubbles of its breathing rise.
I fancy, when the waxing moonLeans through the trees and dreams of June,And when the black bat slants its wing,And lonelier the green-frogs sing;
I fancy, when the whippoorwillIn some old tree sings wild and shrill,With glow-worm eyes that dot the dark,Each holding high a firefly spark
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To torch its way,—the wood-imps come:And some float rocking here; and someUnmoor the lily leaves and oarAround the old boat by the shore.
They climb through oozy weeds and moss;They swarm its rotting sides and tossTheir firefly torches o'er its edgeOr hang them in the tangled sedge.
The boat is loosed. The moon is pale.Around the dam they slowly sail.Upon the bow, to pilot it,A jack-o'-lantern gleam doth sit.
Yes, I have seen it in my dreams!—Naught is forgotten! naught, it seems!—The strangled face, the tangled hairOf the drown'd woman trailing there.
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