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146
The Stone Age
'Twas not a vision! Yet the oak
O'erarched the paleolithic Age;
And homesteads of a pigmy folk
Were clustered 'neath its foliage.
O'erarched the paleolithic Age;
And homesteads of a pigmy folk
Were clustered 'neath its foliage.
Secreted in that sylvan space,
To archæologist unknown,
Stood, reared by some untutored race,
Strange rings and avenues of stone.
To archæologist unknown,
Stood, reared by some untutored race,
Strange rings and avenues of stone.
The little thorp deserted seemed;
What prey had lured the tribe afar?
One figure, lingering, sat and dreamed,
As lonely as the evening star.
What prey had lured the tribe afar?
One figure, lingering, sat and dreamed,
As lonely as the evening star.
147
Bright-haired, blue-eyed, with naked feet,
And young face lit with rosy blood,
She rocked her babe, and dreamed the sweet
Primeval dream of motherhood.
And young face lit with rosy blood,
She rocked her babe, and dreamed the sweet
Primeval dream of motherhood.
A wondrous babe, that once had grown
A branch among the branches green—
For nurslings of the Age of Stone
Are mainly bairns of wood, I ween.
A branch among the branches green—
For nurslings of the Age of Stone
Are mainly bairns of wood, I ween.
A mother strangely young, and sage
Beyond the summers she had told,
For mothers of that ancient Age
Are usually five years old.
Beyond the summers she had told,
For mothers of that ancient Age
Are usually five years old.
God bless thy heart maternal, bless
Thy bower of stone, thy sheltering tree,
Thou small prospective ancestress
Of generations yet to be!
Thy bower of stone, thy sheltering tree,
Thou small prospective ancestress
Of generations yet to be!
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