Why?

Pan Among the Reeds. Arnold Böcklin. 1858.

 

Why?

Walter de la Mare

 

Ever, ever

Stir and shiver

The reeds and rushes

By the river:

Ever, ever,

As if in dream,

The lone moon’s silver

Sleeks the stream.

What old sorrow,

What lost love,

Moon, reeds, rushes,

Dream you of?

 

‘Why?’ was published in Bells and Grass, a 1941 collection of Walter de la Mare’s poems for children.