Part 6 / Book 2 — THE HOLLOW OAK.
Reading edition
Hollow is the oak beside the sunny waters drooping; Thither came, when I was young, happy children trooping; Dream I now, or hear I now—far, their mellow whooping? Gay below the cowslip bank, see the billow dances, There I lay beguiling time—when I lived romances; Dropping pebbles in the wave, fancies into fancies;— Farther, where the river glides by the wooded cover, Where the merlin singeth low, with the hawk above her Came a foot and shone a smile—woe is me, the Lover! Leaflets on the hollow oak still as greenly quiver, Musical amid the reeds murmurs on the river; But the footstep and the smile?—woe is me for ever!