Classic Poem

In the forest day by day
I and Bird-in-hand would play.
Hide-and-seek, or touch-and-go
Kept us running to and fro,
Happy on forbidden ground:
Lovely dangers lurked around.

Thus one day her game began:
" Catch me, catch me, if you can!
Catch me! Catch me! " To her side
Running quickly, oh, I tried! —
Saw her dancing up and down,
Bobbing curls and eyes of brown.

Light of heart, and light of foot,
Sprang she from the hazel-root,
Climbing through the hazel-boughs
Up into the fairies' house:
There a moment cried her fill, —
" Catch me! Catch me! " Then was still,

And the fairies, green and gold,
Lighted down and took soft hold
Of my dear; and like a leaf
Up in air — oh! fairy thief,
Fairy thief! — away sprang she,
Never to come back to me.

In the forest now all day,
Watching how the branches sway,
All alone with mother-wit
Here beneath the boughs I sit
And look up; and, when the breeze
Stirs the leaves upon the trees,
Know that she is one of these.

" Catch me! Catch me! " day by day
That is what they seem to say —
Fairy leaves of green and gold.
Light comes down and takes soft hold, —
Withers them; and then comes wind, —
Shakes them: how the woods are thinned!

Underneath the hazel shade
Here a bed of leaves I've made.
Comfort, comfort, oh! come down,
Bobbing curls and eyes of brown!
Let us end as we began:
Catch me! Catch me, if you can!

Leaf, I cannot tell apart,
Grief for thee hath stretched my heart.
Every leaf that I see fall
Now I love; I keep them all.
Little comforts — such a crumb! —
" Catch me! Catch me! " — down they come.

Long it takes to make the bed
Where together we lie wed.
All alone with mother-wit
Here beneath the boughs I sit:
Down they come! and when the breeze
Lifts the last leaf from the trees,
I shall have her — one of these!