Classic Poem

Macia

Nukahiva maids are lovely;
Sweet the maids of Tokelau;
But I know a sweeter maiden
By the green Ontario.

Darker hair than maids of Maui;
Brighter eyes than Marquesan;
And the blood of northland heroes
Glows beneath her northland tan.

Turquoise seas and scarlet blossoms,
Brown limbs flashing through the spray,
Laughing lips and wanton waters
Cannot lure my heart away;

Cannot lure me from these meadows
Where the soft green shadows run,
Where the steeplebush and vervain
Light their lanterns from the sun;

Where a Syrinx of the Spruces
Plays beyond the walls of man,
Plucking goldenrod and clover
To ensnare the horns of Pan.

There I caught her, wild and wayward,
Wind-tossed hair and thorn-scratched knees;
Heard her strident tomboy shouting
From the tree-house of the trees;

Climbed and caught her in the tree-tops;
Girdled her slim waist with clover;
Wreathed white yarrow in her hair;
Played until, her playing over,

She went with me down the valley,
Down the trail that leads to town,
Where her pixie heart was hidden
Underneath a silken gown.

Still I see her bare limbs flashing,
Catch a glimpse of earth-stained keees,
Hear her merry tomboy laughter
Sifting down among the trees;

Know that time will never tame her,
Hand of fate or heart of man,
But always somewhere past the city
Still she snares the horns of Pan.English