To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-gno
Come play with me; Why should you run Through the shaking tree As though I'd a gun To strike you dead? When all I would do Is to scratch your head And let you go.
W. B. Yeats
Come play with me; Why should you run Through the shaking tree As though I'd a gun To strike you dead? When all I would do Is to scratch your head And let you go.
Yeats’s speaker addresses a squirrel that has just bolted through a shaking tree. The voice is gentle and faintly amused, asking why the creature runs as though a gun were pointed at it. The speaker wants nothing threatening: only to scratch the squirrel’s head for a moment and then release it.
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