Daily sat in the shade with her child, and would smother
Its eye-lids in kisses, and then in its sleep
Sang dreams in its ears, of its manhood, while deep
In a thicket of willows I gazed o'er the brooks
That murmured between us, and kissed them with looks;
But the willows unbosomed their secret, and never
I returned to a spot I had startled for ever;
Tho' I oft longed to know, but could ask it of none,
Was the mother still fair, and how big was her son?"
Hood.