Classic Poem

When soft I lay in the mossy bed
That swells to the foot of the hemlock-tree,
In the pride of a lover's heart I said,
" The sweet, green woods belong to me! "

But the woodchuck gray and the brown-eyed doe
And the chipmunk, rocked on the hazel stem,
And the hare and the deermouse answered, " No! " —
The sweet, green woods belonged to them!

Then the jack-in-the-pulpits, friends of youth,
Looked archly out from their purpling hoods
With an elfin laugh as they told the truth:
" We all belong to the sweet, green woods! "