Met Gnick the Gnu,
And Black in his bumbling
Said "how do you do?"
So sing to the star of all folly
That life is so jolly,
Heigh ho you winter winds.
Washing them thin
Down the vast storm drain
To the thirsty sea.
And reach up for the wave-blue sky,
Their topmost turrets ever kissed
By clean fresh air. Their walls
Are of the purest dream, their doors
The inner eye of fantasy, that glads
The soul, when from the cruel light
0f cold and blowy reasoned day
On silvered purple pinions in quiet flight
It dreaming softly, smoothly glides away.
The castle grows in stature, and the calm
Peace of the mind's ethereal sky
Nurtures it, and gently smooths with balm
0f peaceful dreams its growing walls.
Outside sky darkens, thunder falls,
Castle shakes, dissolves in rain.
Slowly, 'cross the sky of dream
A web-like darkness steals;
The vicious Black Veil covers all,
The dozing land it black conceals.
Who are they that can reach in,
Call us from the sphere
That seals out the world? Who
Can move us, we
Who have locked all out?
That fell down from the sky,
He looked again and found it was
A mote across his eye;
Poor thing, he said, poor silly thing,
The castle must be dry.