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. A Ride for the Queen
2. Moving through the Dew
3. Princeton, May, 1917
4. The Old Grey Squirrel
5. The Trumpet Call

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