The Stream in the Wood

p. 34

THE STREAM IN THE WOOD

I bathed alone in the stream in the wood. I must have frightened the poor naïads, for I could scarcely see them far away in the dark water.

I called to them. To mimic them I plaited iris blossoms, black as my hair, about my neck, twined with knots of yellow gilly-flowers.

With a long floating weed, I made myself a green girdle, and to see it I pressed my breasts and inclined my head a little.

And I called: "Naïads! naïads! play with me, be nice." But the naïads are transparent, and perhaps I even caressed their lissom arms, unknowing!