It was a day of sun and rain,
Uncertain as a child's swift moods;
And I shall never spend again
So blithe a day among the woods of Fountain blue.
Was it because the gods were happy and content.
That they were awful in our eyes,
Whom we in very deed pacified
With barley-cakes of sacrifice in the woods of Fountain blue.
The forest knew her and was glad,
And laughed for very joy to know
Her child was with her; then, grown sad,
She cried, because her child must go to the woods of Fountain blue.
And Sandra, like a little Faun,
Went leaping over rocks and ferns,
Coursing the shadow-race from dawn
Until the twilight-flock returns from the woods of Fountain blue.
And she would spy and she would capture
The shyest flower that lit the grass;
The joy I had to watch her rapture
Was ardent as even her rapture was in the woods of Fountain blue.
The forest knew her and was glad,
And laughed and wept for joy and woe.
This was the welcome that she had
Among the woods of Fountain blue.