Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By VanceThompson

1491 Symbols

GREEN grew the reeds and pale they were,

And all the sunless grass was gray;

The sluggish coils of marsh-water

Dripped thickly over root and stone;

In the deep woods there was no day,

No day within them, shine or sun,—

Only the night alway.

And evermore the cypresses

Against the cold sky rocked and swung;

The lurching of the high, black trees,

Their sprawling black tops tossed and flung

Against the sky. She made a hut

Of dripping stone and wattled clay,

And the small window-space was shut

With woven reeds, green and gray.

The comely stars paced soberly

In the blue gardens overhead,

And morn and eve the housing sky

Shifted in blue and gold and red;

But She who dwelt in the stone hut

Knew not these things; on gathered knees

She leaned her face, her thick hair shut

Her from the stars and trees.