THE SWEET-BRIAR.
I
The Sweet-briar flowering,
With boughs embowering,
Beside the willow-tufted stream,
In its soft red bloom,
And its wild perfume,
Brings back the past like a sunny dream!
II
Methinks, in childhood,
Beside the wildwood
I lie, and listen the blackbird's song,
'Mid the evening calm,
As the Sweet-briar's balm
On the gentle west wind breathes along—
III
To speak of meadows,
And palm-tree shadows,
And bee-hive cones, and a thymy hill,
And greenwood mazes,
And greensward daisies,
And a foamy stream, and a clacking mill.
IV
Still the heart rejoices
At the happy voices
Of children, singing amid their play;
While swallows twittering,
And waters glittering,
Make earth an Eden at close of day.
V
In sequestered places,
Departed faces,
Return and smile as of yore they smiled;
When, with trifles blest,
Each buoyant breast
Held the trusting heart of a little child.
