Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/67

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Yet for them the lilac renewed its leaf, And the aged elm, though touched with fire;And the dry pump flung up an awkward arm; And the fence post carried a strand of wire.
For them there was really nothing sad. But though they rejoiced in the nest they kept,One had to be versed in country things Not to believe the phœbes wept.
Harper's MagazineRobert Frost


A STAR IN A STONE-BOAT
Never tell me that not one star of allThat slip from heaven at night and softly fallHas been picked up with stones to build a wall.
Some laborer found one faded and stone cold,And saving that its weight suggested gold,And tugged it from his first too certain hold,
He noticed nothing in it to remark.He was not used to handling stars thrown darkAnd lifeless from an interrupted arc.
He did not recognize in that smooth coalThe one thing palpable besides the soulTo penetrate the air in which we roll.
"He did not see how like a flying thingIt brooded ant-eggs, and had one large wing,One not so large for flying in a ring,
And a long Bird of Paradise's tail,(Though these when not in use to fly and trailIt drew back in its body like a snail);

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