WHERE THE LILIES USED TO SPRING
Poem by David Gray, melody by Mbo
When the place was green with the shaky grass
And the windy trees were high
When the leaflets told each other tales
And the stars were in the sky
When the silent crows hid their ebon beaks
Beneath their ruffled wing—
Then the fairies watered the glancing spot
Where the lilies used to spring!
When the sun is high in the summer sky
And the lake is deep with clouds
When gadflies bite the prancing kine
And light the lark enshrouds—
Then the butterfly, like a feather dropped
From the tip of an angel's wing
Floats wavering on to the glancing spot
Where the lilies used to spring!
When the wheat is shorn and the burns run brown
And the moon shines clear at night
When wains are heaped with rustling corn
And swallows take their flight
When the trees begin to cast their leaves
And the birds, new-feathered, sing—
Then comes the bee to the glancing spot
Where the lilies used to spring!
When the sky is grey and the trees are bare
And the grass is long and brown
And black moss clothes the soft damp thatch
And the rain comes weary down
And countless droplets on the pond
Their widening orbits ring—
Then bleak and cold is the silent spot
Where the lilies used to spring!
--Mbo
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sj