Riley Farm-Rhymes






THE BROOK-SONG

            Little brook! Little brook!
            You have such a happy look—
     Such a very merry manner, as you swerve and
               curve and crook—
          And your ripples, one and one,
          Reach each other's hands and run
            Like laughing little children in the sun!

           Little brook, sing to me:
           Sing about a bumblebee
     That tumbled from a lily-bell and grumbled
                 mumblingly,
           Because he wet the film
           Of his wings, and had to swim,
             While the water-bugs raced round and
                 laughed at him!

           Little brook-sing a song
           Of a leaf that sailed along
     Down the golden-braided centre of your current
               swift and strong,
          And a dragon-fly that lit
          On the tilting rim of it,
            And rode away and wasn't scared a bit.

          And sing—how oft in glee
          Came a truant boy like me,
     Who loved to lean and listen to your lilting
                 melody,
          Till the gurgle and refrain
          Of your music in his brain
            Wrought a happiness as keen to him
               as pain.

            Little brook-laugh and leap!
            Do not let the dreamer weep:
     Sing him all the songs of summer till he sink in
                   softest sleep;
            And then sing soft and low
            Through his dreams of long ago—
              Sing back to him the rest he used to
                  know!

All books are sourced from Project Gutenberg