Leolin and Edith
These had been together from the first,
Leolin’s first nurse was, five years after, hers;
So much the boy foreran: but when his date
Doubled her own, for want of playmates he
Had tost his ball and flown his kite, and roll’d
His hoop to pleasure Edith, with her dipt
Against the rush of the air in the prone swing,
Made blossom-ball or daisy-chain, arranged
Her garden, sow’d her name and kept it green
In living letters, told her fairy-tales,
Show’d her the fairy footings on the grass,
The little dells of cowslip, fairy palms,
The petty marestail forest, fairy pines,
Or from the tiny pitted target blew
What looked a flight of fairy arrows aim’d
All at one mark, all hitting: make-believes
For Edith and himself.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
From “Aylmer’s Field.”