Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: SMALL PEOPLE, by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: SMALL PEOPLE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The warm moon was up in the sky
Last Line: A man, -- to insult and to shoot!
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Owen; Lytton, 1st Earl Of; Lytton, Robert
Subject(s): Netherlands; Travel; Holland; Dutch People; Journeys; Trips


THE warm moon was up in the sky,
And the warm summer out on the land.
There trembled a tear from her eye:
There trembled a tear on my hand.

Her sweet face I could not see clear,
For the shade was so dark in the tree:
I only felt touched by a tear,
And I thought that the tear was for me.

In her small ear I whispered a word, --
With her sweet lips she laughed in my face
And, as light through the leaves as a bird,
She flitted away from the place.

Then she told to her sister, the Snake,
All I said; and her cousin the Toad.
The Snake slipped away to the brake,
The Toad went to town by the road.

The Toad told the Devil's coach-horse,
Who cocked up his tail at the news.
The Snake hissed the secret, of course,
To the Newt, who was changing her shoes.

The Newt drove away to the ball,
And told it the Scorpion and Asp.
The Spider, who lives in the wall,
Overheard it, and told it the Wasp.

The Wasp told the Midge and the Gnat:
And the Gnat told the Flea and the Nit.
The Nit dropped an egg as she sat:
The Flea shrugged his shoulders, and bit.

The Nit and the Flea are too small,
And the Snake slips from under my foot:
I wish I could find 'mid them all
A man, -- to insult and to shoot!





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