Away, sad thoughts, and teasing 
Perplexities, away! 
Let other blood go freezing, 
We will be wise and gay. 
For here is all heart-easing, 
An ecstasy at play.
The children dancing, dancing, 
Light upon happy feet, 
Both eye and heart entrancing 
Mingle, escape, and meet; 
Come joyous-eyed and advancing 
Or floatingly retreat.
Now slow, now swifter treading 
Their paces timed and true, 
An instant poised, then threading 
A maze of printless clue, 
Their motions smoothly wedding 
To melody anew,
They sway in chime, and scatter 
In looping circles; they 
Are Music's airy matter, 
And their feet move, the way 
The raindrops shine and patter 
On tossing flowers in May.
As if those flowers were singing 
For joy of the clean air, 
As if you saw them springing 
To dance the breeze, so fair 
The lissom bodies swinging, 
So light the flung-back hair.
And through the mind enchanted 
A happy river goes 
By its own young carol haunted 
And bringing where it flows 
What all in the world has wanted 
And who in this world knows?