* THE HUNTING *

When red sun fox steals down the sky,

And darkness dims the heavens high,

There leap again upon his tracks

The eager, starry, hunting packs.

They glitter, glitter, gold and green,

With sparks of frosty fire between,

And Dian bright as day;

While in the gloaming, far below,

Brown owl doth shout “Hi! Tally Ho!

Sun fox hath gone away!”

To music of the spheres they sweep

Over the western world asleep;

Then in the east, with sudden rush,

Sun fox shall whisk his white-tipped brush.

The field is fading, gold and green,

With sparks of frosty fire between,

And Dian growing grey;

While morning leaps the hither hill

And herald lark shouts with a will,

“Sun fox hath gone away!”

Oh, Huntress fond and silly stars —

White Venus, fiery, futile Mars,

In vain your pack ye whirl and cast

Upon the marches of the vast;

In vain ye glitter, gold and green,

With sparks of frosty fire between,

And Dian’ s arrows fly

In silver shafts of broken light;

For ne’ er shall day be caught by night,

And sun fox cannot die.