We had to wait for the heat to pass,
And I was lying on the grass,
While Mother sat outside the door,
And I saw how many stars there were.
Beyond the tree, beyond the air,
And more and more were always there.
So many that I think they must
Be sprinkled on the sky like dust.
A dust is coming through the sky!
And I felt myself begin to cry.
So many of them and so small,
Suppose I cannot know them all.
by Elizabeth Madox Roberts
The two little children that died long ago
Away in the woods on the top of a hill–
And a good little robin that knew all about it
Came with strawberry leaves in her bill,
To cover them up, and she kept very quiet
And brought the leaves one at a time, I think.
And some of the leaves would have little holes in them,
And some would be red and pink.
And these little Babes-in-the-Woods that were dead
Must have lain very still, and they heard all the talk
That the bees would be saying to more little bees,
And maybe they even could hear the ants walk.
And they could look out through a crack in the leaves
And see little bushes and some of the sky.
They could see robin coming with leaves in her mouth,
And they watched for her when she went by.
by Elizabeth Madox Roberts
I saw a curly leaf and it was caught against the grassy side,
And it was tangled in the watery grasses where the branch is wide;
I had it for my little ark of rushes that must wait and hide.
I had it for my little Moses hidden where no one could see,
The little baby Moses that nobody knew about but me.
And I was hiding in the flags and I was waiting all the day,
And watching on the bank to see if Pharaoh’s daughter came that way.
by Elizabeth Madox Roberts
