THE HOUSE OF MOSS
(Built by a Child in a deep Forest.)
HOW fancy romped and played here, Building this house of moss! A faery house, the shade here And sunlight gleam across; And how it danced and swayed here, A child with locks atoss!
I pause to gaze and ponder; And, whisk! I seem to know How, in that house and under, The starry elf-lamps glow, And pixy dances sunder The hush when night falls slow.
Oh, that a witch had willed it That those child-dreams come true! With which the child-heart filled it While 'neath glad hands it grew, And, dim, amort, it builded Far better than it knew.
For Middleage, —that wandered And found it hidden here, And, pausing, gazed and pondered Knowing a mystery near — A dream, its childhood squandered, Or lost, gone many a year.