Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.
The GypsyBeatrice Ravenel
“W
The gypsy laughed to me.
“My heartstone’s set in the good red loam,
And the sky was raised for my own roof-tree.
As he hoists his shell on a shiny track,
I carry the sky, like a snail, on my back,
Till it dabbles its eaves in the sea.
I haven’t a place to be lonesome in;
For I look through the moon like a clean glass pane
And a candle set
In the house of a friend where I’ll come again—
(But, Lord, not yet,
While the earth is warm to my side and kind!)
And the mischievous star in the curving tree
Is the spark of a wild faun’s pipe maybe—
He with a mind
To happen in for an hour or two
Without any words, as a pal might do.
In my rumpled palm, as a child could come—
That’s where I live when I’m at home,
Right in the world!”