The Bean-Stalk

Ho, Giant!    This is I!              I have built me a bean-stalk into your sky!              La,--but it's lovely, up so high!              This is how I came,--I put              Here my knee, there my foot,              Up and up, from shoot to shoot--              And the blessed bean-stalk thinning              Like the mischief all the time,              Till it took me rocking, spinning,              In a dizzy, sunny circle,              Making angles with the root,              Far and out above the cackle              Of the city I was born in,              Till the little dirty city              In the light so sheer and sunny              Shone as dazzling bright and pretty              As the money that you find              In a dream of finding money--              What a wind!    What a morning!--              Till the tiny, shiny city,              When I shot a glance below,              Shaken with a giddy laughter,              Sick and blissfully afraid,              Was a dew-drop on a blade,              And a pair of moments after              Was the whirling guess I made,--              And the wind was like a whip              Cracking past my icy ears,              And my hair stood out behind,              And my eyes were full of tears,              Wide-open and cold,              More tears than they could hold,              The wind was blowing so,              And my teeth were in a row,              Dry and grinning,              And I felt my foot slip,              And I scratched the wind and whined,              And I clutched the stalk and jabbered,              With my eyes shut blind,--              What a wind!    What a wind!              Your broad sky, Giant,              Is the shelf of a cupboard;              I make bean-stalks, I'm              A builder, like yourself,              But bean-stalks is my trade,              I couldn't make a shelf,              Don't know how they're made,              Now, a bean-stalk is more pliant--              La, what a climb!