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Four Little Foxes


When I was a kid at summer camp, someone posted this Lew Sarett poem on a corkboard by the mess hall door. I'd had a thing for foxes, ever since seeing the film, "Gone to Earth," with Jennifer Jones as the gypsy girl with a pet fox, so the poem really touched me.


Four Little Foxes


Speak gently, Spring, and make no sudden sound;

For in my windy valley yesterday I found

Newborn foxes squirming on the ground —

Speak gently.


Walk softly, March, forbear the bitter blow.

Her feet within a trap, her blood upon the snow,

The four little foxes saw their mother go —

Walk softly.


Go lightly, Spring, oh, give them no alarm;

As I covered them with boughs to shelter them from harm,

The thin blue foxes suckled at my arm —

Go lightly.


Step softly, March, with your rampant hurricane;

Nuzzling one another, and whimpering with pain,

The new little foxes are shivering in the rain —

Step softly.


By Lew Sarett






1 Comment


Sandra Paul
Sandra Paul
Jul 26, 2022

The poem is poignant & beautiful. I did not know of Lew Sarett's poetry & will look him up. I love Jennifer Jones! I first saw her in Love is a Many Splendored Thing, & then in the 1943 classic, The Song of Bernadette. Both amazing films & full of emotional heart-tugs. Luckily, her "Gone to Earth" is on YouTube - I will look forward to watching :) I've always had a love & appreciation for foxes. The first novel I read as a teenager was the partly historical "Ghost Fox" by James Houston (1978). My twitter username is @foxtongirl (I lived at Foxton Beach, NZ for a time). Sadly, we don't have foxes in NZ.

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