The Magpie Lark

By lagoons and reedy places,
Where the little river races
   By the lips of dreaming pools
   Where the soothing water cools
Many a verdant slope and hollow,
Here my blithesome way I follow.
   Anywhere that waters glisten
   Pause a little while and listen.
You will hear my plaintive note
O'er the placid mirror float --
   Tho' nought know I of plaint or fret:
   "Pierrot! Pierrette! Pierrot! Pierrette!"
 
Pierrot am I, light hearted fellow,
Be the day morose or mellow;
   And pierrette, my dainty wife,
   Adopts a like gay view of life;
We dance; we dance amid the sedges,
Dance by duplicated edges
   Of the peaceful little ponds;
   Now I bow, and she responds;
And then we dance together there,
Rise aloft, and dance on air;
   Rising, falling, calling yet:
   "Pierrot! Pierrette! Pierrot! Pierrette!"
 
Thistledown was ne'er so light
As our dainty, dancing flight;
   Gay pied pipers, trim and neat;
   Joy is in our wings, our feet;
Grace is in our every pose . . . 
We dance, we dance till, at day's close,
   When the pool's dark mirrors limn
   Twilit glory at the brim --
Trees and opalescent sky --
We dance away; and as we fly
   Our call comes faint and fainter yet:
   "Pierrot!. Pierrette! .. Pierrot! ..."