Alzuna

by Alfred Noyes

The forest of Alzuna hides a pool.

Beside that pool, a shadowy tree up-towers.

High on that tree, a bough most beautiful

Bends with the fragrant burden of its flowers.

Among those flowers a nest is buried deep.

Warm in that nest, there lies a freckled shell.

Packed in that shell, a bird is fast asleep.

This is the incantation and the spell.

For, when the north wind blows, the bird will cry,

“Warm in my freckled shell, I lie asleep.

The freckled shell is in the nest on high.

The nest among the flowers is buried deep.

The flowers are on a bough most beautiful.

The bough is on a tree no axe can fell.

The sky is at its feet in yonder pool.

This is the incantation and the spell!”