Part 2 (1/2)

50.

Some crooning lonely and aloof; And some were dancing fairy-rings And weaving pearly daisy-strings, Or chasing golden bees; But here and there a little pair

55.

With rosy cheeks and tangled hair Debated quaint old childish things*-*

And we were one of these.

Lines 5865 (p. 30) were subsequently rewritten: But why it was there came a time When we could take the road no more, Though long we looked, and high would climb, Or gaze from many a seaward sh.o.r.e To find the path between sea and sky To those old gardens of delight; And how it goes now in that land, If there the house and gardens stand, Still filled with children clad in white- We know not, You and I.

And why it was Tomorrow came And with his grey hand led us back;

60.

And why we never found the same Old cottage, or the magic track That leads between a silver sea*

And those old sh.o.r.es* and gardens fair Where all things are, that ever were-

65.

We know not, You and Me.*

This is the final version of the poem: The Little House of Lost Play

Mar Vanwa Tyalieva

We knew that land once, You and I, and once we wandered there in the long days now long gone by, a dark child and a fair.

5.

Was it on the paths of firelight thought in winter cold and white, or in the blue-spun twilit hours of little early tucked-up beds in drowsy summer night,

10.

that you and I in Sleep went down to meet each other there, your dark hair on your white nightgown and mine was tangled fair?

We wandered shyly hand in hand,

15.

small footprints in the golden sand, and gathered pearls and sh.e.l.ls in pails, while all about the nightingales were singing in the trees.

We dug for silver with our spades,

20.

and caught the sparkle of the seas, then ran ash.o.r.e to greenlit glades, and found the warm and winding lane that now we cannot find again, between tall whispering trees.

25.