| |
| POOR little child, my pretty boy, | |
| Why did the hunter mark thee out? | |
| Wert thou betrayed by thine own joy? | |
| Singled through childhood’s merry shout? | |
| |
| And who on such a gentle thing | 5 |
| Let slip the Hound that none may bar, | |
| That shall o’ertake the swiftest wing | |
| And tear the heavens down star by star? | |
| |
| And borne away unto the night, | |
| What comfort in the vasty hall? | 10 |
| Can That which towers from depth to height | |
| Melt in Its mood majestical, | |
| |
| And laugh with thee as child to child? | |
| Or shall the gay light in thine eyes | |
| Drop stricken there before the piled | 15 |
| Immutable immensities? | |
| |
| Or shall the Heavenly Wizard turn | |
| Thy frailty to might in Him, | |
| And make my laughing elf to burn | |
| Comrade of crested cherubim? | 20 |
| |
| The obscure vale emits no sound, | |
| No sight, the chase has hurried far: | |
| The Quarry and the phantom Hound, | |
| Where are they now? Beyond what star? | |
| |
