Poems, partly of rural life, (in national English.) ::

One glowing evening, when shades were dark'ning
Below the elm trees before her door,
I pass'd with light ling'ring footsteps, hark'ning
To sounds that struck through my fond heart's core.
For there, with soul-touching turn and swell,
An unknown voice sweetly rose and fell,
And sang, as far as I then could learn,
“How sweet's the love that meets return.”

There in the hall by the evening lighted,
Within a casement set open wide,
And tired with work that she never slighted,
She sat at rest by her brother's side;
And, as the tune wound so high and low,
Beneath his light string-awak'ning bow,
She sang the old song she wish'd to learn,
“How sweet's the love that meets return.”

And once I saw her so light's a fairy,
With glowing cheeks under glossy locks,
With busy hands cutting down rosemary,
And blue-ear'd spike for her snow-white frocks;
And felt that no one of womankind
Could take like her my bewildered mind.
I lov'd her fondly, but had to learn
“How sweet's the love that meets return.”

But when at Maypole we young folk parted
Below the garlands with dying leaves,
And I took her off, so happy-hearted,
To see her home to her houses eaves;
Then by the kind words she spoke so fast,
And by her looks and her smiles at last,
I found that night, by the moon-bright durn,
“How sweet's the love that meets return.”

And when for my sake, in wedlock holy,
She left the old folks to sit alone,
While through the evening the clock tick'd slowly,
And crickets chirp'd by the warm hearth-stone;
They lov'd to talk of their daughter gone,
And wondered how we were going on;
For in their hearts never ceased to burn
For her, the love that met return.

And when, soon after, again I drove her
Back home to see them, a welcome child,
She laugh'd to see how her flow'rs ran over
The place, forsaken and rambling wild.
Within her room one had dared to peep,
As though to see if she lay asleep,
And some climbed over the pales and durn,
As if in love that sought return.

University of Virginia Library

“HOW SWEET'S THE LOVE THAT MEETS RETURN.” The title of an old song.

“HOW SWEET'S THE LOVE THAT MEETS RETURN.”

The title of an old song.