In the deep kingdom underground
There is no light and little sound.
Down below the earth's green floor
The rabbit and the mole explore.
The quarrying ants run to and fro
To make their populous empires grow.
Do they, as I pass overhead,
Stop in their work to hear my tread?
Some creatures sleep and do not toil,
Secure and warm beneath the soil.
Sometimes a fork or spade intrudes
Upon their earthly solitudes.
Downward the branching tree-roots spread
Into the country of the dead.
Deep down, the buried rocks and stones
Are like the earth's gigantic bones.
In the dark Kingdom underground
How many marvellous things are bound!
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