Snowdrops

Have you heard the Snowdrops ringing Their bells to themselves? Smaller and whiter than the singing Of any fairy elves Who follow Mab their Queen When she is winging On a moth across the night And calls them all With a far-twinkling call Like the tiniest ray of tiniest starlight That ever was seen? Far and near, high and low, Don't you hear the little bells go? Not in the big winds that blow The roaring beeches to and fro, Not in the lower rivers Of the breeze Below the trees, When the stiff bracken shines, And the thin bent quivers, And the limp green waves to and fro, You shall hear the little bells go, But in the jets and rivulets That sputter from the melting snows When against the mighty bole Of a beech they dash and swirl And twist and twirl, The licking leaves throw A thousand airy drops invisible Down the strong perpendicular To where the snowdrops are; Tiny drops that fall and meet, And swift and sweet Run dim viewless course of fitful force, Like an airy waterfall You shall hear the little bells go All the tiny snowbells swinging, Tiny chauntlets high and low.