Living

A Song of Riches

by Katharine Lee Bates 1859–1929

From An American Anthology, 1787–1900, ed. Edmund Clarence Stedman (1900)

Living

What will you give to a barefoot lass,
Morning with breath like wine?
Wade, bare feet! In my wide morass
Starry marigolds shine.

Alms, sweet Noon, for a barefoot lass,
With her laughing looks aglow!
Run, bare feet! In my fragrant grass
Golden buttercups blow.

Gift, a gift for a barefoot lass,
O twilight hour of dreams!
Rest, bare feet, by my lake of glass,
Where the mirrored sunset gleams.

Homeward the weary merchants pass,
With the gold bedimmed by care.
Little they wis that the barefoot lass
Is the only millionaire.

MLA

Bates, Katharine Lee. “A Song of Riches.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/bates_kl/1/.

Chicago

Bates, Katharine Lee. “A Song of Riches.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/bates_kl/1/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Katharine Lee Bates