Said the fountain to its clear bed, "You might flow faster! I am sprinkling my best, every day, But ice is holding you fast. Can't you get out? Can't you lift yourself with sun? I am tired waiting for slow cold water To fling about the air: Can't you wake yourself up?" But the fountain-basin murmured softly "Sleep . . . sleep . . . Sleep . . . sleep . . . You with your talking and talking! Hush . . . hush . . . I hear the bird-sandman!" POPLARS The poplars bow forward and back; They are like a fan waving very softly. They tremble, For they love the wind in their feathery branches. They love to look down at the shallows, At the mermaids On the sandy shore; They love to look into morning's face Cool in the water. THE TOWER AND THE FALCON There was a tower, once, In a London street. It was the highest, widest, thickest tower, The proudest, roundest, finest tower Of all towers. English men passed it by: They could not see it all Because it went above tree-tops and clouds. It was lonely up there where the trees stopped Until one day A blue falcon came flying. He cried: "Tower! Do you know you are the highest, finest, roundest, The tallest, proudest, greatest, Of all the towers In all the world?" He went away. That night the tower made a new song About himself. THOUGHTS My thoughts keep going far away Into another country under a different sky: My thoughts are sea-foam and sand; They are apple-petals fluttering. POEM-SKETCH IN THREE PARTS (Made for the picture on the jacket of the Norwegian book, The Great Hunger, by Johan Bojer) I THE ROLLING IN OF THE WAVE It was night when the sky was dark blue And the water came in with a wavy look Like a spider's web. The point of the slope came down to the water's edge; It was green with a fairy ring of forget-me-not and fern. The white foam licked the side of the slope As it came up and bent backward; It curled up like a beautiful cinder-tree Bending in the wind. II THE COMING OF THE GREAT BIRD