I took my trouble out to walk,
All in the lovely weather.
Too glum we were for any talk,

Just trudging on together
In silence, neither caring aught
For any job beneath the sun,
Till all at once, before I thought,
I cried, “Oh, please excuse me, Grief,
But there’s a maple bough in leaf!
And here’s a violet by a stone,
And oh, another one!”

I darted here, I darted there,
Such beauties twinkled everywhere
In blue and gold. “Forgive me, Trouble,
But here’s a crocus growing double,
And pinkish, too, I do declare!”
I found a robin’s nest; I found
Some spider lace along the ground;
I found a feather for my hair.
But when at last I looked around,
Where was my grief? I could not find
My grief at all.
                        Well, never mind;
Perhaps she strayed up in the hills
To gather daffodils.

This poem is in the public domain.