Classic Poem

When I leaned over a pool of black water,
I saw in the blackness the King o' Spain's daughter.

Her lips were a rose and the rose was bright red;
All the birds of the air, they flew round her head,

Her hair, it was streaming about me as light
As a boll of milkweed on soft airs of the night.

Her hands were as white as the coat of a moth,
And her gown was of gossamer spun into cloth.

There came down a wind-breath that ruffled the pool
And leaves were thrown down like the words of a fool.

I blew with my breath and cleared them away
And the wind climbed up-land to race and to play.

I looked in the pool to seek out her face
And saw but a tangle of marshweed like lace,

And never again in a pool of black water
Have I seen the blue eyes of the King o' Spain's daughter.