At The Fall Of Dew

A poem by Madison Julius Cawein

One bright star in the firmament,
One wild rose in the dew,
And a girl, like the sparkling two,
Following the cows that went
Through roses wet with dew,
Roses, two by two.

Shy she was as the twilight skies
When they hesitate with stars,
As she stood to wait at the pasture bars,
Gazing with far-off eyes
At the slowly coming stars
Over the pasture bars.

She hummed a tune while the cattle passed,
And the bells in the dusk clanged clear;
Then a whistle caught her ear,
And she knew 'twas love at last,
While the bells in the dusk clanged clear,
And his whistle caught her ear.

The smell of the hay came warm and sweet
From the field there where he stood,
The field by the old beech wood,
Where a bird sang, "Sweet! oh, sweet!"
In the tree there, where he stood
By the old beech wood.

Then a voice at the farmyard gate
Called to her down the road,
Where the fireflies' lights were sowed;
But she answered the one await
By the tree at the end of the road
Where the fireflies' lights were sowed.

Right young was he and brown and strong
As a farmer's lad should be;
And she? with her soul of witchery
And a heart, like a bird's, of song,
All a country girl should be,
With a soul of' witchery.

Oh! I can see them yet
In the dusk of the long-ago
Two lovers walking slow;
And my eyes with tears are wet
For the love of the long-ago,
Love of the long-ago.