My Kingdom

DOWN by a shining water well  
I found a very little dell,  
  No higher than my head.  
The heather and the gorse about  
In summer bloom were coming out,          
  Some yellow and some red.  
  
I called the little pool a sea;  
The little hills were big to me;  
  For I am very small.  
I made a boat, I made a town,   
I searched the caverns up and down,  
  And named them one and all.  
  
And all about was mine, I said,  
  The little sparrows overhead,  
The little minnows too.   
This was the world and I was king;  
For me the bees came by to sing,  
  For me the swallows flew.  
  
I played there were no deeper seas,  
Nor any wider plains than these,   
Nor other kings than me.  
At last I heard my mother call  
Out from the house at evenfall,  
  To call me home to tea.  
  
And I must rise and leave my dell,   
And leave my dimpled water well,  
  And leave my heather blooms.  
Alas! and as my home I neared,  
How very big my nurse appeared,  
  How great and cool the rooms!