At Fontainebleau

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. Was it because the Gods were pleased That they were awful in our eyes, Whom we in very deed appeased With barley-cakes of sacrifice? The forest knew her and was glad, And laughed for very joy to know Her child was with her; then, grown sad, She wept, because her child must go. And Alice, like a little Faun, Went leaping over rocks and ferns, Coursing the shadow-race from dawn Until the twilight-flock returns. And she would spy and she would capture The shyest flower that lit the grass; The joy I had to watch her rapture Was keen as even her rapture was. 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 Fontainebleau.