University of Virginia Library


223

IT HAPPENED IN MAY

A maid forsaken
A white prayer offered
Under the snow of the apple-blossom:
To whom was it proffered?
By whom was it taken?
Well, I suppose
Nobody knows.
But somehow, the snows
Of the apple-blossom
Were changed one day.
A kiss was offered,
A kiss was taken:
And lo! when the maiden looked shyly away,
Of bloom of the apple the boughs were forsaken!
But whiter and sweeter grew orange-blossom!
Now this is quite true, I say,
And it happened in May.