The Poetry Corner

Glamour

By Madison Julius Cawein

With fall on fall, from wood to wood, The brook pours mossy music down Or is it, in the solitude, The murmur of a Faery town? A town of Elfland filled with bells And holiday of hurrying feet: Or traffic now, whose small sound swells, Now sinks from busy street to street. Whose Folk I often recognize In wingd things that hover 'round, Who to men's eyes assume disguise When on some elfin errand bound. The bee, that haunts the touchmenot, Big-bodied, making braggart din Is fairy brother to that sot, Jack Falstaff of the Boar's Head Inn. The dragonfly, whose wings of black Are mantle for his garb of green, Is Ancient to this other Jack, Another Pistol, long and lean. The butterfly, in royal tints, Is Hal, mad Hal, in cloth of gold, Who passes these, as once that Prince Passed his companions boon of old.