Across the Border
BY SOPHIE JEWETT
I have read somewhere that the birds of fairyland
are white as snow.—W. B. Yeats
are white as snow.—W. B. Yeats
Where all the trees bear golden flowers,
And all the birds are white;
Where fairy folk in dancing hours
Burn stars for candlelight;
Where every wind and leaf can talk,
But no man understand
Save one whose child-feet chanced to walk
Green paths of fairyland;
I followed two swift silver wings;
I stalked a roving song;
I startled shining, silent things;
I wandered all day long.
But when it seemed the shadowy hours
Whispered of soft-foot night,
I crept home to sweet common flowers,
Brown birds, and candlelight.
Source: The Poems of Sophie Jewett (1910)