Page:Poems Dorr.djvu/431

THE APPLE-TREE

Graceful and lithe and tall,
It stands by the garden wall,
In the flush of its pink-white bloom
Elate with its own perfume.
Tossing its young bright head
 In the first glad joy of May,
While its singing leaves sing back
 To the bird on the dancing spray.
"I'm alive! I'm abloom!" it cries
To the winds and the laughing skies.
Ho! for the gay young apple-tree
That stands by the garden wall!

Sturdy and broad and tall,
Over the garden wall
It spreads its branches wide—
A bower on either side.
For the bending boughs hang low;
 And with shouts and gay turmoil
The children gather like bees
 To garner the golden spoil;
While the smiling mother sings,
"Rejoice for the gift it brings!
Ho! for the laden apple-tree
That stands by our garden wall!"

The strong swift years fly past,
Each swifter than the last;