A band of giants, strong and tall,
With heavy feet and knotted hands
Came marching, with enormous stride
Across the meadow lands;
They tore the branches from the trees
They dashed the water from the brook
And often, in an angry rage
Their locks of heavy hair they shook.
“Hold!” Mother Earth in anger cried,
“Such mischief, sirs, I shall forbid!”
And reaching up she drew them down
And in her darkness they were hid
Deep, dark, and close; and now the eyes
Of country dwellers, as they pass,
See only tops of tousled heads
Above the meadow grass.