Poem by Alfred Noyes

Alzuna

The forest of Alzuna hides a pool.
    Beside that pool, a shadowy tree up-towers.
High on that tree, a bough most beautiful
    Bends with the fragrant burden of its flowers.
Among those flowers a nest is buried deep.
    Warm in that nest, there lies a freckled shell.
Packed in that shell, a bird is fast asleep.
    This is the incantation and the spell.

For, when the north wind blows, the bird will cry,
    “Warm in my freckled shell, I lie asleep.
The freckled shell is in the nest on high.
    The nest among the flowers is buried deep.
The flowers are on a bough most beautiful.
    The bough is on a tree no axe can fell.
The sky is at its feet in yonder pool.
    This is the incantation and the spell!”

1. The Escape of the Old Grey Squirrel
2. Necromancy
3. Song of the Wooden-Legged Fiddler
4. Earth-Bound
5. Fishers of Men

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