Good Company. [Karle Wilson Baker]
To-day I have grown taller from walking with the trees,
The seven sister-poplars who go softly in a line;
And I think my heart is whiter for its parley with a star
That trembled out at nightfall and hung above the pine.
The call-note of a redbird from the cedars in the dusk Woke his happy mate within me to an answer free and fine; And a sudden angel beckoned from a column of blue smoke — ~Lord, who am I that they should stoop — these holy folk of thine?~
“Feuerzauber”. [Louis Untermeyer]
I never knew the earth had so much gold —
The fields run over with it, and this hill,
Hoary and old,
Is young with buoyant blooms that flame and thrill.
Such golden fires, such yellow — lo, how good
This spendthrift world, and what a lavish God —
This fringe of wood,
Blazing with buttercup and goldenrod.
You too, beloved, are changed. Again I see
Your face grow mystical, as on that night
You turned to me,
And all the trembling world — and you — were white.
Aye, you are touched; your singing lips grow dumb;
The fields absorb you, color you entire...
And you become
A goddess standing in a world of fire!