Classic Poem

" I WANDERED lonely as a cloud "
Along the busy, bustling street,
Unmindful of the alien crowd
That passed me by with hurrying feet:
I knew not 't was an April day,
So chill the winds that blew this way.

When, at a crossing of the flags
A wanderer from the woods I met,
With willow wands and alder tags
And tufts of pink arbutus, wet
With April dews and showers, that fell
Around them in some far-off dell,
And redolent of the rich loam
That fed them in their forest home —
Strange perfume, in whose effluence broods
The wild, sweet spirit of the woods —
Bringing remembrance of old days,
Of spring-time wanderings through a maze
Of mossy, winding, woodland ways,
Or, o'er some brown hill's hoary side
Where the shy May-flower loves to hide.

Then, with a glinting of surprise
In the cool shadow of his eyes,
The woodman touched me with his wand
And turned the street to Fairy-land!
" Well met, " he cried; " I have a few
Tufts of arbutus. These for you . "