Running After The Rainbow

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Title:     Running After The Rainbow
Author: Dinah M. Mulock Craik [More Titles by Craik]

"WHY thus aside your playthings throw,
Over the wet lawn hurrying so?
Where are you going, I want to know?"
"I'm running after the rainbow."

"Little boy, with your bright brown eyes
Full of an innocent surprise,
Stop a minute, my Arthur wise,
What do you want with the rainbow?"

Arthur paused in his headlong race,
Turned to his mother his hot, young face,
"Mother, I want to reach the place
At either end of the rainbow.

"Nurse says, wherever it meets the ground.
Such beautiful things may oft be found
Buried below, or scattered round,
If one can but catch the rainbow.

"O please don't hinder me, mother dear,
It will all be gone while I stay here;"
So with many a hope and not one fear,
The child ran after the rainbow.

Over the damp grass, ankle deep,
Clambering up the hilly steep,
And the wood where the birds were going to sleep,
But he couldn't catch the rainbow.

And when he came out at the wood's far side,
The sun was setting in golden pride,
There were plenty of clouds all rainbow dyed,
But not a sign of the rainbow.

Said Arthur, sobbing, as home he went,
"I wish I had thought what mother meant;
I wish I had only been content,
And not ran after the rainbow."

And as he came sadly down the hill,
Stood mother scolding--but smiling still,
And hugged him up close, as mothers will:
So he quite forgot the rainbow.

[The end]
Dinah M. Mulock Craik's poem: Running After The Rainbow

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