Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/157

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SONGS IN A CORNFIELD.
129
A silence of full noontide heat
Grew on them at their toil:
The farmer's dog woke up from sleep,
The green snake hid her coil
Where grass stood thickest; bird and beast
Sought shadows as they could,
The reaping men and women paused
And sat down where they stood;
They ate and drank and were refreshed,
For rest from toil is good.

While the reapers took their ease,
Their sickles lying by,
Rachel sang a second strain,
And singing seemed to sigh:—

  "There goes the swallow—
  Could we but follow!
   Hasty swallow stay,
   Point us out the way;
Look back swallow, turn back swallow, stop swallow.

  "There went the swallow—
  Too late to follow:
   Lost our note of way,
   Lost our chance to-day;
Good bye swallow, sunny swallow, wise swallow.

  "After the swallow
  All sweet things follow: