Le Coq d'Or

With plumes and pinions streaming red

And crest as bright as day,

With golden echoes down the west

The proud cock struts away.

While under her drooped wings of dark

The night clucks in her brood

To cease among her shadow fluff

Their hungry scratch for food.

She calls the stubborn stragglers in,

The early and the late,

And feathers sleep about each last

Reluctant love or hate.

So, huddled on the nest of earth,

She tucks her head and dreams

Till scarlet-combed upon the hill

The cock returning screams.