XXXIII + 

How He Saw Angus the God + 

I heard the swallow sing in the eaves and rose + 

All in a strange delight while others slept, + 

And down the creaking stair, alone, tip-toes, + 

So carefully I crept. + 

The house was dark with silly blinds yet drawn, + 

But outside the clean air was filled with light, + 

And underneath my feet the cold, wet lawn + 

With dew was twinkling bright. + 

The cobwebs hung from every branch and spray + 

Gleaming with pearly strands of laden thread, + 

And long and still the morning shadows lay + 

Across the meadows spread. + 

At that pure hour when yet no sound of man, + 

Stirs in the whiteness of the wakening earth, + 

Alone through innocent solitudes I ran + 

Singing aloud for mirth. + 

Till I had found the open mountain heath + 

Yellow with gorse, and rested there and stood + 

To gaze upon the misty sea beneath, + 

Or on the neighbouring wood, + 

—That little wood of hazel and tall pine + 

And youngling fir, where oft we have loved to see + 

The level beams of early morning shine + 

Freshly from tree to tree. + 

Through the denser wood there’s many a pool + 

Of deep and night-born shadow lingers yet + 

Where the new-wakened flowers are damp and cool + 

And the long grass is wet. + 

In the sweet heather long I rested there + 

Looking upon the dappled, early sky, + 

When suddenly, from out the shining air + 

A god came flashing by. + 

Swift, naked, eager, pitilessly fair, + 

With a live crown of birds about his head, + 

Singing and fluttering, and his fiery hair, + 

Far out behind him spread, + 

Streamed like a rippling torch upon the breeze + 

Of his own glorious swiftness: in the grass + 

He bruised no feathery stalk, and through the trees + 

I saw his whiteness pass. + 

But when I followed him beyond the wood, + 

Lo! He was changed into a solemn bull + 

That there upon the open pasture stood + 

And browsed his lazy full. + 