<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">The Faery Birth</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A WAND'RING maiden travel-worn,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Scorch'd by the red sun's cruelty,</p><p class="line">Espied a little hut forlorn;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Enter'd and grateful down did lie.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">From sweet repose she woke at last,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">And 'mid the dirt about the ground,</p><p class="line">Lone relic of the silent past,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">A candlestick of brass she found.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">She pluck'd it from the floor below,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">And softly musing to herself</p><p class="line">She rubb'd it with her rags of woe;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Then set it on the lonely shelf.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">She went. But lo! the fiery King,</p><p class="line">Now <em>kindly smiling</em> from above,</p><p class="line">Shone through the dust upon the thing</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Bright burnish'd by the maiden's love:</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And from that wedding glance was born</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">A dream of golden charities,</p><p class="line">Which first illum'd the hut forlorn,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Then flitted forth to glad the skies.</p></div><p><em>March</em>, 1912.</p></body></html> · Great War