Merrow Down

by Rudyard Kipling

 There runs a road by Merrow Down,
 A grassy track to-day it is
 An hour out Guildford town,
 Above the river Wey it is.

 Here, when they heard the hors-bells ring,
 The ancient Britons dressed and rode
 To which the dark Phoenicians bring
 Their goods along the Western Road.

 Yes, here, or hereabouts, they met
 To hold their racial talks and such
 To barter beads for Whitby jet,
 And tin for gay shell torques and such.

 
 But long ago before that time 
 (When bison used to roam on it)
 Did Taffy and her Daddy climb
 That Down, and had their home on it.

 Then beavers built in Broadstonebrook
 And made a swamp where Bramley stands;
 And bears from Shere would come and look
 For Taffimai where Shamley stands.

 The Wey, that Taffy called Wagai,
 Was more than six times bigger then;
 And all the Tribe of Tegumai
 They cut a noble figure then!


II

 Of all the Tribe of Tegumai
 Who cut that figure, none remain,
 On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry
 The silence and the sun remain.

 But as the faithful years return
 And hearts unwounded sing again,
 Comes Taffy dancing through the fern
 To lead the Surrey spring again.

 Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds,
 And golden elf-locks fly above;
 Her eyes are bright as diamonds
 And bluer than the sky above.

 In moccasins and deer-skin cloak,
 Unfearing, free and fair she flits,
 And lights her little damp-wood smoke
 To show her Daddy where she flits.

 For far, oh, very far behind,
 So far she cannot call to him,
 Comes Tegumai alone to find
 The daughter that was all to him!