The Goat Paths

The crooked paths go every way
Upon the hill -- they wind about
Through the heather in and out
Of the quiet sunniness
And there the goats, day after day
Stray in sunny quietness
Cropping here and cropping there
As they pause and turn and pass
Now a bit of heather spray
Now a mouthful of the grass
In the deeper sunniness
In the place where nothing stirs

Quietly in quietness
In the quiet of the furze
For a time thеy come and lie
Staring on the roving sky
If you approach thеy run away
They leap and stare, away they bound
With a sudden angry sound
To the sunny quietude ;
Crouching down where nothing stirs
In the silence of the furze
Couching down again to brood
In the sunny solitude

If I were as wise as they
I would stray apart and brood
I would beat a hidden way
Through the quiet heather spray
To a sunny solitude;
And should you come I'd run away
I would make an angry sound
I would stare and turn and bound
To the deeper quietude
To the place where nothing stirs
In the silence of the furze

In that airy quietness
I would think as long as they ;
Through the quiet sunniness
I would stray away to brood
By a hidden beaten way
In a sunny solitude
I would think until I found
Something I can never find
Something lying on the ground
In the bottom of my mind