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Home  »  Anthology of Massachusetts Poets  »  Michael Pat

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Massachusetts Poets. 1922.

Michael Pat

OLD Michael Pat he said to me

He saw an angel in a tree.

He knew I’d never, never doubt him,

For what would heaven be without them.

The angel laughed for very glee

And sang out loud: “Heigh! come with me!”

Old Michael felt a creeping kind

Of wonder in his humble mind,

And, hardly knowing what to say,

Ran where the angel showed the way.

The lambs were running on the hills,

Glad laughter echoed from the rills,

And many hidden little birds

Talked pleasant things in singing words.

He followed up a mountain then

And saw a crowd of singing men

Approaching to a Crown of Light

Wherein they took a fresh delight.

He danced and sang and whooped and crew

To see the Lord of all he knew

Surrounded by the living songs

Of stars and men in countless throngs,

And then he died to life again,

And shovelled with the strength of ten.

He taught me how to say my letters,

And take my hat off to my betters,

And when I asked for fairy stories,

He told me of angelic glories.

He was a lovely farmer, he

Had seen an angel in a tree.