Verses (Baughan)/The Pool and the Kingfisher

by Blanche Edith Baughan

THE POOL AND THE KINGFISHER

A deep Pool lay within a forest dark.
No grass grew on its brim,
No sun, no swallow knew the place; it was
Vacant and drear and dim.

Thither, one day, a gem-bright Kingfisher
O, as the blue seas bright!
Swept, with a flash that waked the swooning air,
And smote the dark to light.

And the sad Pool rejoiced, and said: “At last
Comes lightly to my breast
The natural lord of its unrifled deeps,—
And O, the glorious Guest!

“Now my perpetual pall of murky days
What secret Sun will line!
Now all my shadows shall with light be sped,
Or, lingering, learn to shine.

“And ye, charged Clouds, ye shall but gladden me
Now, with your rainbow rain!”
—The Bird was flying to his nest, far off,
And never came again.