Green Ribands Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

There's a word i' the winds o' mornin',
There's a song i' the standin' corn,
For they tied my sleeves wi' green ribands
The day that I was born.

My brothers and my sisters
They call me daft an' queer,
For all the goodly world that's mine
They may not see nor hear.

They cannot tell the bird's talk
Nestin' i' the eaves,
Nor see the wee sly faces
A-peekin' thro' the leaves.

They know not what the stream says
Bubblin' by the stones,
Nor what the wind would tell them
In strange sweet undertones.

O my merry playmates!
My friends I know fu' well!
Dry leaves i' the autumn woods,
Winds upon the fell!

My blessin' on the careless nurse,
My blessin', night an' morn,
Who tied my sleeves wi' green ribands,
The day that I was born!