Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

On the pleasant scene where I de-
lighted

In the careless happy days of yore,
Ere the garden of my heart was
blighted
To the core

[ocr errors]

Seemed it pitiful he should sit there. I have tottered here to look once

It was summer, and we went to school

Dapper country lads, and little maidens;

Taught the motto of the "Dunce's stool,"

Its grave import still my fancy ladens

"Here's a fool!"

66

more!

"All the picture now to me how dear!

E'en this gray old rock where I am seated

Is a jewel worth my journey here;
Ah, that such a scene must be
completed
With a tear!

It was summer, and we went to All the picture now to me how dear!

[blocks in formation]

For the game;

When the stranger seemed to mark Old stone school-house!-it is still

[blocks in formation]

One sweet spirit broke the silent In the cottage yonder, I was born.

66

spell.

[ocr errors]

Angel," said he sadly, "I am oldEarthly hope no longer hath a morrow;

Yet why I sit here thou shalt be told,"

Then his eye betrayed a pearl of sor

[blocks in formation]

"Those two gateway sycamores you

see

Then were planted just so far as under

That long well-pole from the path to free,

And the wagon to pass safely under; Ninety-three!

Those two gateway sycamores you

see.

[blocks in formation]

Taken wing!

swing!

[blocks in formation]

Ere she hastened to the spirit-land-
Yonder turf her gentle bosom
pressing;
Broken band!

There's the gate on which I used to There my Mary blessed me with her

[blocks in formation]

hand.

"I have come to see that grave once

more,

And the sacred place where we de

lighted,

[blocks in formation]

next night

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,

And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all

the rest!

STANZAS FROM SONG OF THE FLOWERS.

WE are the sweet flowers, Born of sunny showers, (Think, whene'er you see us what our beauty saith;)

Utterance, mute and bright,
Of some unknown delight,
We fill the air with pleasure by our
simple breath:

All who see us love us
We befit all places,

Unto sorrow we give smiles- and unto graces, graces.

Mark our ways, how noiseless
All, and sweetly voiceless,

Though the March winds pipe to make our passage clear;

Not a whisper tells

Where our small seed dwells

Nor is known the moment green when our tips appear.

We thread the earth in silence
In silence build our bowers-

It came again, with a great wakening And leaf by leaf in silence show, till

light,

we laugh a-top, sweet flowers!

[blocks in formation]

What sweet thoughts she thinks

Of violets and pinks,

Trees themselves are ours:
Fruits are born of flowers;

Peach and roughest nut were blossoms in the spring;

The lusty bee knows well

The news, and comes pell-mell,

And a thousand flushing hues made And dances in the gloomy thicks with

[blocks in formation]

darksome antheming; Beneath the very burden Of planet-pressing ocean,

We wash our smiling cheeks in peace -a thought for meek devotion.

[blocks in formation]

And all those Amazonian plains lone One to the fields, the other to the

By the bee-birds haunted,

lying as enchanted.

hearth,

Both have your sunshine; both,

though small, are strong

At your clear hearts; and both seem given to earth

To sing in thoughtful ears this natural song,

In doors and out, summer and winter, mirth.

MAY AND THE POEts.

THERE is May in books forever;
May will part from Spenser never;
May's in Milton, May's in Prior,
May's in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer;
May's in all the Italian books:-
She has old and modern nooks,
Where she sleeps with nymphs and
elves,

In happy places they call shelves,
And will rise and dress your rooms
With a drapery thick with blooms.
Come, ye rains, then if ye will,
May's at home, and with me still;

[blocks in formation]

All our own selves in the worn-out shape of others;

But come rather, thou, good weather, Our used, and oh, be sure, not to be

And find us in the fields together.

ill-used brothers!

[blocks in formation]

O moon! in the night I have seen you sailing

And shining so round and low;

You were bright! ah, bright! but your light is failing,—
You are nothing now but a bow.

« EelmineJätka »