Then came a shuffling,
Such a happy ruffling
Of the dried sweet
Surf of leaves upon the road
Round a baby’s feet.
Year-old leaf ran after
Three-year-old laughter,
Danced through the air
As she caught them from the road
And flung them anywhere.
Old leaf and cold leaf,
Brown leaf and gold leaf
And white-backed beam,
Followed down the woodland road
Myfanwy in a dream.
FOR JOAN.
SHALL love no other child,
Joan, as I love you;
The second life our children build
Remains for you to do.
You would have been out-loved in one
That never will be born,
And the love that should my flower have grown
Grows nothing but my thorn.
You for that unborn other’s sake
My deepest heart do clutch,
But sometimes—sometimes all you take
Hurts, for her sake, too much.