University of Virginia Library

A YEAR AGO.

The sun across the hill
Is gazing bright and bold,
But the valley with the frost in her lap,
Chaste and chilly cold;
All in her sheets of mist,
From morn to evening lies,
Unconscious of the bold, bright face
Of her lover in the skies!
Spirits of coming flowers
The sense wellnigh deceives;
The rose awaiting to be dressed
In her dainty body of leaves;
The hollyhock and pink,
For their cups of brown and red,
And the lily for a holy veil
To lap about her head.
The fisher sings by the sea,
As he mends his broken net,
And all with golden drops of light
Are the rainy shadows set.
In a cloud of whitest dreams,
But a little year ago,

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Like a tender Alpine flower
Nestling under the snow,
The lady of my heart
Was with me all day long,
And the tears came out of her happy eyes
To praise the fisher's song.
Her song is sweeter now
Than the fisher's by the sea,
And the rose in her dainty body of leaves
Is not so fair as she!