Poems (Young)/The Wood Queen
THE WOOD-QUEEN.
The music of the May-time fills the hollowsAnd dim recesses of the forest world;The magic music that all Nature followsWith laughter and with banners green unfurled.Softly it steals through spaces dreamy-heartedWhere scarce the glancing squirrels dare to playAnd falls at last ahush, where oak-boughs partedReveal the Queen who holds the woods in sway.Moon-pale she is, like light in darkness hiding,And shine and shade have woven her mantle fair;Peace in each fold of its nine folds abidingAnd in the shadowy beauty of her hair;And in her eyes, beyond a mortal's knowing,Deep peace like that of lonely mountain-lakesWhen in the heavens one pale star is showingAnd in the east the dawn-light slowly breaks;So still she is, 'twould seem as though she listenedTo voices in a world far, far away:A world song-built ere the first rainbow glistenedOr earth awoke to music of the May.