BRONWEN OF THE FLOWERS.
RONWEN gathered wild-flowers
Up-and-down the lane;
Her gathering touch upon them
Sweeter was than rain.
Now a blossom overblown,
Now a bud begun—
Her eye that lightened on them
Was quicker than the sun.
One by one she named them,
Oh, she did express
In her pretty namings
All their prettiness:
Some were fit for virgins,
Some for merry dames,
And the love with which she named them
Was lovelier than their names.
JESSICA DANCES.
HEN Joy and Molly on the lawn
Danced bare of foot like spirits of dawn
Jessica watched in wonderment
Until delight would not be pent,
And shoe and sock she cast in mirth
And felt her naked toes touch earth.
Swiftly the fresh green joy shot in
Through the fresh young rosy skin,
And in a golden glee the child
Went dancing innocently-wild
Up and down and round and round
Like daisies covering the ground,
Called sunward by the age-long spell
No ages can destroy
Of youth that never sighed or sinned,—
While elfin Molly and fairy Joy
Danced on like lilies in a dell
Or harebells in the wind.