HAY COCKS

A band of giants, strong and tall, With heavy feet and knotted hands Came marching, with enormous stride Across the meadow lands; They tore the branches from the trees They dashed the water from the brook And often, in an angry rage Their locks of heavy hair they shook. “Hold!” Mother Earth in anger cried, “Such mischief, sirs, I shall forbid!” And reaching up she drew them down And in her darkness they were hid Deep, dark, and close; and now the eyes Of country dwellers, as they pass, See only tops of tousled heads Above the meadow grass.