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80 LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. FAREWELL TO A RURAL RESIDENCE How beautiful it stands, Behind its elm-tree's screen, With simple attic cornice crown'd, All graceful and serene! Most sweet, yet sad, it is, Upon yon scene to gaze, And list its inborn melody, The voice of other days: For there, as many a year Its varied chart unroll'd, I hid me in those quiet shades, And call'd the joys of old; I call'd them, and they came When vernal buds appear'd, Or where the vine-clad summer bower Its temple-roof uprear'd; Or where the o'er-arching grove Spread forth its copses green, While eye-bright and asclepias rear'd Their untrain'd stalks between; And the squirrel from the boughs His broken nuts let fall, And the merry, merry little birds Sang at his festival. Yon old forsaken nests Returning spring shall cheer, And thence the unfledged robin breathe His greeting wild and clear; And from yon clustering vine, That wreathes the casement round, The humming-bird's unresting wings Send forth a whirring sound; LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. 81 And where alternate springs The lilac's purple spire Fast by its snowy sister's side; Or where, with wing of fire, The kingly oriole glancing went Amid the foliage rare, Shall many a group of children tread, But mine will not be there. Fain would I know what forms The mastery here shall keep, What mother in yon nursery fair Rocks her young babes to sleep: Yet blessings on the hallow'd spot, Though here no more I stray; And blessings on the stranger-babes, Who in those halls shall play. Heaven bless you, too, my plants, And every parent bird, That here, among the woven boughs, Above its young hath stirr'd. I kiss your trunks, ye ancient trees, That often, o'er my head, The blossoms of your flowery spring In fragrant showers have shed. Thou, too, of changeful mood, I thank thee, sounding stream, That blent thine echo with my thought, Or woke my musing dream. I kneel upon the verdant turf, For sure my thanks are due To moss-cup and to clover-leaf, That gave me draughts of dew. F
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Reopened for Editing 2023-06-27 17:48:49
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Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 09:59:13