 | This, that and the other |  |
A WALK IN MAY-TIME.
We wandered by the burnside,
In the merry month of May,
When the leaflets and the blossoms
Were keeping holiday;
When the cowslips starred the meadows,
And the alders fringed the brook,
And the early violets lifted
To the skies a loving look;
And the wild choke-cherry blossoms
You braided in my hair,
Till my cheek with blushes deepened,
As you said that I was fair!
And I thought that sweet spring sunshine
Jacob's ladder might have been,
On which angels clomb to heaven,
And came down again to men;
For the breezes breathed but incense,
And the streamlet breathed but prayer,
And a misty gold went floating
On the fragrant spring-time air;
And I surely thought your kisses
Were like blessings from the skies,
And a thousand visions slumbered
In your blue and dreamy eyes!
In the merry month of May,
When the leaflets and the blossoms
Were keeping holiday;
When the cowslips starred the meadows,
And the alders fringed the brook,
And the early violets lifted
To the skies a loving look;
And the wild choke-cherry blossoms
You braided in my hair,
Till my cheek with blushes deepened,
As you said that I was fair!
And I thought that sweet spring sunshine
Jacob's ladder might have been,
On which angels clomb to heaven,
And came down again to men;
For the breezes breathed but incense,
And the streamlet breathed but prayer,
And a misty gold went floating
On the fragrant spring-time air;
And I surely thought your kisses
Were like blessings from the skies,
And a thousand visions slumbered
In your blue and dreamy eyes!
211
But the day blew slowly over
With a noise of wind and rain;
To your eyes there came a shadow,
To my heart there came a pain;
And the streamlet 'gan to dimple; —
Was it with some angel's tears,
Who sat weeping, in the silence,
O'er the changes of the years?
There shall come another May-time;
By the burnside I shall walk,
Hearing no glad step beside me,
And no sound of pleasant talk;
Gone will be the breathing fragrance,
And the music in the air,
As the wild choke-cherry blossoms
Will be withered from my hair.
Never more, like Jacob's ladder,
Will the sunshine seem to fall;
'T will be clomb by ghosts and spectres,
Bearing up a funeral pall;
But my life is blowing over,
With a noise of wind and rain,—
I shall sleep the death-sleep calmly,
And my heart will cease from pain.
With a noise of wind and rain;
To your eyes there came a shadow,
To my heart there came a pain;
And the streamlet 'gan to dimple; —
Was it with some angel's tears,
Who sat weeping, in the silence,
O'er the changes of the years?
There shall come another May-time;
By the burnside I shall walk,
Hearing no glad step beside me,
And no sound of pleasant talk;
Gone will be the breathing fragrance,
And the music in the air,
As the wild choke-cherry blossoms
Will be withered from my hair.
Never more, like Jacob's ladder,
Will the sunshine seem to fall;
'T will be clomb by ghosts and spectres,
Bearing up a funeral pall;
But my life is blowing over,
With a noise of wind and rain,—
I shall sleep the death-sleep calmly,
And my heart will cease from pain.
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