Dew - A Moony Tale.

"Look at that dew", said the Strayed Baby.

"That's not dew at all", said the Toad, who had been listening uninvited.

"I could tell you a story about that," said the Starling.

"Don't," said the Little Man, looking out from his poppy-blossom.

But the Starling began: -

One day our Jesus made the moon, / And through the curtained sky it burst, / And laughed aloud to hear the tune / The stars sang - as they did at first.

Then Time unwound his golden thread; / And every night across the sky, / The moon went spinning overhead, / And joyed to see the stars go by.

But when a thousand years had sped, / One night, beyond the Northern Bar, / The moon's face blushed a sudden red, / He saw and loved a virgin star.

His heart throbbed. "Jesus," said the moon, / "I've spread my light a thousand years / Upon your Earth, and now one boon / I ask -- That when my love-star nears

"My path, together we may fly, / And hand in hand, through endless days, / Wander together down the sky, / And work they works, and sing they praise."

God sat as still as stone: he saw / Beyond the bounds of Time and Space. / "Moon, thou art of the changeless law, / Get thee to thine appointed place."

Back went the moon, but now dead white / Like Death his face, and he creeps / Across the dark sky every night / Alone increasingly he weeps.

And through the long and changeless year, / He walks alone across the Blue, / Gemming the grass on Earth with tears, / Which men and women call the dew.

BC Archives, MS-2570 Box 1 File 6 MIST, Henry Masterman Ruhleben magazine, Prisoners’ Pie, 1916