THE ELFIN HEART
Reading edition
They that have the elfin heart Cannot weep; In the desert they would sleep While the lion watched apart; And when tears of mortals start Silence keep. They have eyen dark and deep, And their look As a pool in forest brook, As a tarn on mountain steep, As a spell, doth calmness keep, Sealéd book! Who are they? O brethren, tell! Do ye know Why the winter’s folding snow And the wild wolves’ hungry yell Fright them not, and where they go Sans farewell? All their ways with flowers strow, For they see What to us is mystery, Far forgotten, long ago; Neither have they friend nor foe; Elfin heart I may not know Pity me! 1914.