A POST-IMPRESSION

He sat with his foolish mouth agape at the golden glare of the sea,

And his wizened and wintry flaxen locks fluttered around his ears,

And his foolish infinite eyes were full of the sky's own glitter and glee,

As he dandled an old Dutch Doll on his knee and sang the song of the spheres.

Blue and red and yellow and green they are melting away in the white;

Hey! but the wise old world was wrong and my idiot heart was right;

Yes; and the merry-go-round of the stars rolls to my cracked old tune,

Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.

Then he cradled his doll on his crooning heart and cried as a sea-bird cries;

And the hot sun reeled like a drunken god through the violent violet vault:

And the hillside cottage that danced to the deep debauch of the perfumed skies

Grew palsied and white in the purple heath as a pillar of Dead Sea salt.

Then a tiny maiden of ten sweet summers arrived with a song and a smile,

And she swung on the elfin garden-gate and sung to the sea for a while,

And a phantom face went weeping by and a ghost began to croon

Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.

And she followed a butterfly up to his chair; and the moon-calf caught at her hand

And stared at her wide blue startled eyes and muttered, “My dear, I have been,

In fact, I am there at this moment, I think, in a wonderful fairy-land:”

And he bent and he whispered it low in her ear — “I know why the grass is green.

“I know why the daisy is white, my dear, I know why the seas are blue;

I know that the world is a dream, my dear, and I know that the dream is true;

I know why the rose and the toad-stool grow, as a curse and a crimson boon,

Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.

“Ah, hush!” he cried; and his dark old eyes were wet with a sacred love

As he kissed the wooden face of his doll and winked at the skies above,

“I know, I know why the toad-stools grow, and the rest of the world will, soon;

Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.”

“Blue and red and yellow and green they are all mixed up in the white;

Hey! but the wise old world was wrong and my idiot heart was right;

Yes; and the merry-go-round of the stars rolls to my cracked old tune,

Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.”