| |
| HAVE you ever been down to my countree | |
| Where the trees are green and tall? | |
| The days are long and the heavens are high, | |
| But the people there are small. | |
| There is no work there; it is always play; | 5 |
| The sun is sweet in the morn; | |
| But a thousand dark things walk at night | |
| In the land where I was born. | |
| |
| Have you ever been down to my countree | |
| Where the birds made happy Spring? | 10 |
| The parrots screamed from the honey-trees, | |
| And the jays hopped chattering. | |
| Strange were the ways of the water-birds | |
| In the brown swamps, night and morn; | |
| I knew the roads they had in the reeds | 15 |
| In the land where I was born. | |
| |
| Have you ever been down to my countree? | |
| Have you ridden the horses there? | |
| They had silver manes, and we made them prance | |
| And plunge and gallop and rear. | 20 |
| We were knights of the olden time, | |
| When the old chain-mail was worn: | |
| The swords would flash and the helmets crash | |
| In the land where I was born. | |
| |
| Have you ever been down to my countree? | 25 |
| It was full of smiling queens: | |
| They had flaxen hair, they were white and fair, | |
| But they never reached their teens. | |
| Their shoes were small and their dreams were tall: | |
| Wonderful frocks were worn; | 30 |
| But the queens all strayed from the place we played, | |
| In the land where I was born. | |
| |
| I know you have been to my countree | |
| Though I never saw you there; | |
| I know you have loved all things I have loved, | 35 |
| Flowery, sweet, and fair. | |
| The days were long,—it was always play; | |
| But we,—we were tired and worn; | |
| They could not welcome us back again | |
| To the land where I was born. | 40 |
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