My kingdom

Down by a shining water well
I found a very little dell,
No higher than my head. 
The heather and the gorse about
In summer bloom were coming out,
Some yellow and some red. 

I called the little pool a sea;
The little hills were big to me;
For I am very small. 
I made a boat, I made a town,
I searched the caverns up and down,
And named them one and all. 

And all about was mine, I said,
The little sparrows overhead,
The little minnows too. 
This was the world and I was king;
For me the bees came by to sing,
For me the swallows flew. 

I played there were no deeper seas,
Nor any wider plains than these,
Nor other kings than me. 
At last I heard my mother call
Out from the house at evenfall,
To call me home to tea. 

And I must rise and leave my dell,
And leave my dimpled water well,
And leave my heather blooms. 
Alas! and as my home I neared,
How very big my nurse appeared,
How great and cool the rooms!

The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.

Of speckled eggs the birdie sings
And nests among the trees;
The sailor sings of ropes and things
In ships upon the seas. 

The children sing in far Japan,
The children sing in Spain;
The organ with the organ man
Is singing in the rain.

Dark brown is the river,
Golden is the sand.
It flows along for ever,
With trees on either hand.

Green leaves a-floating,
Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating -
Where will all come home?

On goes the river
And out past the mill,
Away down the valley,
Away down the hill.

Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore.

Whenever the moon and the stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.

Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,

By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again.