A Lady red－amid the Hill 1
Her annual secret keeps!
A Lady white, within the Field
In placid Lily sleeps!
The tidy Breezes, with their Brooms－5
Sweep vale－and hill－and tree!
Prithee, My pretty Housewives!
Who may expected be?
The Neighbors do not yet suspect! 9
The Woods exchange a smile!
Orchard, and Buttercup, and Bird－
In such a little while!
And yet, how still the Landscape stands! 13
How nonchalant the Hedge!
As if the "Resurrection"
Were nothing very strange!
Her annual secret keeps!
A Lady white, within the Field
In placid Lily sleeps!
The tidy Breezes, with their Brooms－5
Sweep vale－and hill－and tree!
Prithee, My pretty Housewives!
Who may expected be?
The Neighbors do not yet suspect! 9
The Woods exchange a smile!
Orchard, and Buttercup, and Bird－
In such a little while!
And yet, how still the Landscape stands! 13
How nonchalant the Hedge!
As if the "Resurrection"
Were nothing very strange!
(F.137/J.74)
[1, 3] Lady red, Lady white:: a widow's two daughters called Snow-white and Rose-red in Grimm's Fairy Tale.
[8] Who may expected be:: they were waiting for the bear, a prince being cursed to live in the form of a bear. At the end Snow-white married the prince, and Rose-red his brother.
[15] Resurrection:: the prince recovered from bear to human form.
There was once a poor Widow who lived alone in her hut with her two children, who were called Snow-White and Rose-Red, because they were like the flowers which bloomed on two rose-bushes which grew before the cottage. ─ Household Stories Collected by the Brothers Grimm (1853)