THE HUNTING
Reading edition
When red sun fox steals down the sky, And darkness dims the heavens high, There leap again upon his tracks The eager, starry, hunting packs. They glitter, glitter, gold and green, With sparks of frosty fire between, And Dian bright as day; While in the gloaming, far below, Brown owl doth shout “Hi! Tally Ho Sun fox hath gone away!” To music of the spheres they sweep Over the western world asleep; Then in the east, with sudden rush, Sun fox shall whisk his white-tipped brush. The field is fading, gold and green, With sparks of frosty fire between, And Dian growing grey; While morning leaps the hither hill And herald lark shouts with a will, “Sun fox hath gone away!” Oh, Huntress fond and silly stars— White Venus, fiery, futile Mars, In vain your pack ye whirl and cast Upon the marches of the vast; In vain ye glitter, gold and green, With sparks of frosty fire between, And Dian’s arrows fly In shattered shafts of ebbing light; For ne’er shall day be caught by night, And sun fox cannot die.