| Robert Frost (1874–1963). A Boy’s Will. 1915. |
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| 25. Spoils of the Dead |
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| TWO fairies it was | |
| On a still summer day | |
| Came forth in the woods | |
| With the flowers to play. | |
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| The flowers they plucked | 5 |
| They cast on the ground | |
| For others, and those | |
| For still others they found. | |
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| Flower-guided it was | |
| That they came as they ran | 10 |
| On something that lay | |
| In the shape of a man. | |
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| The snow must have made | |
| The feathery bed | |
| When this one fell | 15 |
| On the sleep of the dead. | |
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| But the snow was gone | |
| A long time ago, | |
| And the body he wore | |
| Nigh gone with the snow. | 20 |
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| The fairies drew near | |
| And keenly espied | |
| A ring on his hand | |
| And a chain at his side. | |
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| They knelt in the leaves | 25 |
| And eerily played | |
| With the glittering things, | |
| And were not afraid. | |
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| And when they went home | |
| To hide in their burrow, | 30 |
| They took them along | |
| To play with to-morrow. | |
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| When you came on death, | |
| Did you not come flower-guided | |
| Like the elves in the wood? | 35 |
| I remember that I did. | |
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| But I recognised death | |
| With sorrow and dread, | |
| And I hated and hate | |
| The spoils of the dead. | 40 |
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