Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/166

150 When the wanderer, no longer In sorrow forced to roam, Shall see around him spring and bloom The blessed things of home :

"When the poor and widowed mother Shall fit recompense obtain, For her days and nights of toiling, From the sordid man of gain :

"When the brawny limbs of labor, And the hard and horny hand, For their strivings, for their doings, Meet honor shall command :

"When suffering hearts, that struggle In silence, and endure. Shall receive, unsought, the earnest Ministrations of the pure :

"When the master with his bondsmen For a price shall divide the soil, And the slave, at last enfranchised, Shall go singing to his toil :

"When the bloody trade of the soldier Shall lose its olden charm. And the sickle hand be honored more Than the sword and the red right arm:

"When tolerance and truthfulness Shall not be under ban. And the fiercest foe and deadliest Man knows, shall not be man.

Be firm, and be united. Ye who war against the wrong ! Though neglected, though deserted. In your purpose still be strong ! To the faith and hope that move you In the things ye dare and do, Though the world rise up against you. Be resolute — be true !

heart leaps like a child's, when first I see them on their lowly stem, As from still Avint'ry fields they burst. Bright as the blue skies over them, Sprinkhng with gold the meadowy green. Where Spring's approach is earliest seen.

They come in changeful April days. These children of the cloud and sun, When light with shadow softly plays, As both along the ridges run, Wooing the bee from out his cell, With tales of flowery slopes they tell.

Bright horologe of seasons — they Proclaim the floral calends here, Revealing when in woods away Spring flowers, and singing birds appeal', Through open aisle and mazy bout To lure the feet of childhood out.

I love them that so soon they spring Where slopes the meadow to the brook ; I love them that to earth they bring So cheerful and so warm a look ; And that again they give to me The playmates of my infancy.

O! days of love, and trust, and truth ; (The morning sky is strangely bright I) O! loved companions of my youth : (How darkly closes in the night !) Again the fields spread free and far ; Beyond them, still the woodlands are.

I'm with you now, glad-hearted ones ! Where'er beneath the April sky The flashing rill in music runs. Or floAvery lawns in sunlight lie — Where harvest apples ripe Ave see. And Avliere the summer berries be.

I'm with you where the cardinal bird Pipes in the budding groves of spring.