As there I left the road in May, <br />And took my way along a ground, <br />I found a glade with girls at play, <br />By leafy boughs close-hemmed around, <br />And there, with stores of harmless joys, <br />They plied their tongues, in merry noise: <br />Though little did they seem to fear <br />So queer a stranger might be near; <br />Teeh-hee! Look here! Hah! ha! Look there! <br />And oh! so playsome, oh! so fair. <br /> <br />And one would dance as one would spring, <br />Or bob or bow with leering smiles, <br />And one would swing, or sit and sing, <br />Or sew a stitch or two at whiles, <br />And one skipped on with downcast face, <br />All heedless, to my very place, <br />And there, in fright, with one foot out, <br />Made one dead step and turned about. <br />Heeh, hee, oh! oh! ooh! oo!—Look there! <br />And oh! so playsome, oh! so fair. <br /> <br />Away they scampered all, full speed, <br />By boughs that swung along their track, <br />As rabbits out of wood at feed, <br />At sight of men all scamper back. <br />And one pulled on behind her heel, <br />A thread of cotton, off her reel, <br />And oh! to follow that white clue, <br />I felt I fain could scamper too. <br />Teeh, hee, run here. Eeh! ee! Look there! <br />And oh! so playsome, oh! so fair.<br /><br />William Barnes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-surprise/
