Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 127.djvu/462

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AUTUMN HEDGES, ETC.


AUTUMN HEDGES.

See the purple vetches climb
Through the lush green grasses;
Hear the bluebell's fairy chime
As the light wind passes;
The poppy, like a scarlet flame,
By snowy starwort blazes;
The buttercup its golden head
By rosy campion raises;
The bramble in its lavish bloom
A fruitful future pledges;
The elder's glossy berries droop
O'er the autumn hedges.

The bindweed flings her graceful wreath
Where soft green nuts are darkening;
The fern-leaves bow their lovely fronds,
The thrushes' gurgle hearkening;
There the tall campanula
Its lilac bloom is showing;
Subtle fragrance tells us where
The purple clover's blowing;
Soft and hoar, the briony
Hangs from rocky ledges,
Where tansy's rugged royalty
Rules the autumn hedges.

The lordly foxgloves, side by side,
Guard the creeping mosses;
The thistle to the wooing air
Its thorny circlets tosses;
The crowsfoot glitters like a gem
Where golden-rod waves thickest.
Where the orchis studs the green,
Where moneywort runs quickest;
The rush-flower and the yellow flag
Bloom amid the sedges.
Where the bonny becks dance down
By the autumn hedges.

With a beauty all his own
Reigns winter, keen and hoary;
Sweet the springtide's vivid smile.
Sweet the summer's glory;
But the autumn's bounteous hand.
In the cloudless weather.
Brings flower, fruit, and harvest-home
To the world together.
So lovely dreams, bard-born in May,
A brooding fancy fledges
To life as lavish, rich, and bright
As glows in autumn hedges.

S. K. Phillips.
Tinsley's Magazine.




LOVE'S WHISPER.

Go, heart of mine, and hasten to my love;
Tell her I mourn throughout the slow, sad hours.
And that I wander through forsaken bowers
Like some disconsolate and widowed dove,
Who, being once forsaken of her mate,
Doth wander ever after desolate.

Go, heart of mine, and tremble in her breast;
Tell her that I am like the winds that scour
O'er hill and dale, that leafy woods deflower,
And meadows many-hued, yet find no rest.
But, making moan which never doth abate,
Do wander up and down disconsolate.

Go, heart of mine, and whisper in her ear
That I am like a tree no longer green.
Where winter's barrenness may be foreseen
In branch and bough, by autumn's touch made sere;
And like the leaves which rough winds violate.
The days from off my life drop desolate.

And if that move her not, go, kiss each lip,
And tell her that I can no longer live,
Unless she come again to me, and give
Her sweet and ever-constant fellowship.
And from her lips thou shalt not separate
Until she swear to be compassionate.

Chambers' Journal.




SINGING.

Let me count up the songs of life that we
Have sung together from the first till now:
The simple baby-rhymes of bird and bee,
Of sun and star, of stream and blossom-bough.
The deeper music of our youth's new song,
In days when life looked wonderfully fair;
When hearts were daring, pulses quick and strong.
When woe was not, and joy was everywhere.
The wilder strain of passion, smiles and tears,
When love awoke with power to slay or save;
The calmer melody of graver years,
In minor key, like music by a grave.
And now we have another song to learn,
'Tis written for us, we but wait our turn.

I often think this unseen, unsung song.
With all its strangeness, will have notes we know;
And we shall hear its awful chords among
The mingled music of our long ago.
The simple snatches of our baby-rhymes;
The thrilling bars of youth's triumphant strain;
The peals of melody, like wedding chimes.
That bring our summer love-song back again.
It may be this new song is hard to sing,
But shall we grudge to learn it, who have grown
Tired and voiceless in earth's carolling,
Yet fain would have some melody our own?
And, though it is the song of death, we know
That, singing it, to endless life we go.

All The Year Round.