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318       ANN S. STEPHENS.

I am thinking of the lilac trees
That shook their purple plumes,
And, when the sash was open,
Shed fragrance through our rooms.

I am thinking of the rivulet,
With its cool and silvery flow,
Of the old gray rock that shadow'd it,
And the peppermint below.
I am not sad or sorrowful,
But memories will come;
So leave me to my solitude,
And let me think of home.

There was not around my birthplace
A thicket or a flower
But childish game, or friendly face,
Has given it a power
To haunt me in my after life,
And be with me again,
A sweet and pleasant memory,
Of mingled joy and pain.

But the old and knotted apple-tree,
That stood beneath the hill,
My heart can never turn to it,
But with a pleasant thrill.
Oh, what a dreamy life I led
Beneath its old green shade,
Where the daisies and the buttercups
A pleasant carpet made!

'Twas a rough old tree in spring-time,
When, with a blustering sound,
The wind came hoarsely sweeping
Along the frosty ground.


ANN S. STEPHENS.      319

But when there rose a rivalry
'Tween clouds and pleasant weather,
Till the sunshine and the rain-drops
Came laughing down together;

That patriarch old apple-tree
Enjoy'd the lovely strife;
The sap sprang lightly through its veins,
And circled into life;
A cloud of pale and tender buds
Burst o'er each rugged bough,
And amid their starting verdure
The robins made their vow.

That tree was very beautiful
When all the leaves were green,
And rosy buds lay opening
Amid their tender sheen;
When the bright translucent dewdrops
Shed blossoms as they fell,
And melted in their fragrance,
Like music in a shell.

It was greenest in the summer-time,
When cheerful sunlight wove,
Amid its thrifty leafiness,
A warm and glowing love;
When swelling fruit blush'd ruddily
To summer's balmy breath,
And the laden boughs droop'd heavily
To the green sward underneath.

'Twas brightest in a rainy day,
When all the purple west
Was piled with fleecy storm-clouds,
That never seem'd at rest;

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-29 12:54:55 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-29 13:03:53