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HECTOR IN THE GARDEN.
I.
NINE years old! The first of any
Seem the happiest years that come:—
Yet when I was nine, I said
No such word!—I thought, instead,
That the Greeks had used as many
In besieging Ilium.
II.
Nine green years had scarcely brought me
To my childhood's haunted spring:—
I had life, like flowers and bees,
In betwixt the country trees;
And the sun, the pleasure, taught me
Which he teacheth every thing.
III.
If the rain fell, there was sorrow;—
Little head, leant on the pane,
Little finger drawing down it
The long trailing drops upon it,—
And the "Rain, rain, come to-morrow,"
Said for charm against the rain.
