Feast Day

They’ll get your rollicking spirit pretty soon,
Taming you to the observances of days.
They’ll teach you how to tread the ordered maze,
Little wild baby dancing under the moon —
Not to go prancing at the call of the loon,
Mad little darling of the runaways!
Of conversation, manner, prim delays
They’ll tell you—and nice use of the fork and spoon.

Oh please, oh please don’t let it be all wasted
That you from streams have drunk a dear delight,
You who have lived with faery and have tasted 
Delicate rumors, stirrings of the sprite.
Do sometimes put your fingers to your nose,
And still go dancing on your little toes!


Elf-Child, by Florence Kiper Frank