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 | The poems of Madison Cawein |  |
481
QUATRAINS
I Moths and Fireflies
Since Fancy taught me in her school of spellsI know her tricks: These are not moths at all,
Nor fireflies; but masking Elfland belles
Whose link-boys torch them to Titania's ball.
II Autumn Wildflowers
Like colored lanterns swung in Elfin towers,Wild morning-glories light the tangled ways,
And, like the rosy rockets of the Fays,
Burns the sloped crimson of the cardinal-flowers.
III The Wind in the Pines
When winds go organing through the pinesOn hill and headland, darkly gleaming,
482
Of Iliads that the woods are dreaming.
IV Opportunity
Behold a hag whom Life denies a kissAs he rides questward in knighterrant-wise;
Only when he hath passed her is it his
To know, too late, the Fairy in disguise.
V Dreams
They mock the present and they haunt the past,And in the future there is naught agleam
With hope, the soul desires, that at last
The heart, pursuing, does not find a dream.
| The poems of Madison Cawein | |