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- THE CAP AND BELLS
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- THE jester walked in the garden:
- The garden had fallen still;
- He bade his soul rise upward
- And stand on her window-sill.
- It rose in a straight blue garment,
- When owls began to call:
- It had grown wise-tongued by thinking
- Of a quiet and light footfall;
- But the young queen would not listen;
- She rose in her pale night-gown;
- She drew in the heavy casement
- And pushed the latches down.
- He bade his heart go to her,
- When the owls called out no more;
- In a red and quivering garment
- It sang to her through the door.
- It had grown sweet-tongued by dreaming
- Of a flutter of flower-like hair;
- But she took up her fan from the table
- And waved it off on the air.
- "I have cap and bells,' he pondered,
- "I will send them to her and die';
- And when the morning whitened
- He left them where she went by.
- She laid them upon her bosom,
- Under a cloud of her hair,
- And her red lips sang them a love-song
- Till stars grew out of the air.
- She opened her door and her window,
- And the heart and the soul came through,
- To her right hand came the red one,
- To her left hand came the blue.
- They set up a noise like crickets,
- A chattering wise and sweet,
- And her hair was a folded flower
- And the quiet of love in her feet.
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