Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/689

 CORA MITCHELL DOWNS. Cora Mitchell Downs is a native of Shawangunk, New York, and is now residing at Wyandotte, Kansas. She was educated at Poughkeepsie, New York, and while there, at school, some of her fugitive pieces attracted considerable attention by their pathos and tenderness. She afterward removed to Fremont, Ohio, and wrote over the signature of Cora, for the Sandusky Register and several literary journals. She was married, at Fremont, January first, 1857. Since her marriage her pen has been quiet ; the wife's and mother's duties taking precedence of literary tastes and occu- pations. THE OLD ELM TREE. There the moonlight falls as softly And silently as then ; I HAVE many blessed memories Of rock, and hill, and stream, Where the sunshine used to linger. Like a fair and pleasant dream ! Where the moonlight came with silver There the branches droop as lowly And silently as then ! Oh, will no heart be sadder With memories of me. When ling'ring 'neath thy shadow, steps. O'er mossy bank and lea, My Old Elm Tree ? But the dearest of all memories, Is the Old Elm Tree ! There are those who may remember That I loved the quiet shore, I lingered there in childish hours, There are those who may regret To watch the ripples play — me, Beneath its feathery branches sat, And idled many a day ! And there, again, in later years The sunshine of my glee That I come not — evermore — Wlien the autumn winds are sighing, And the joys of summer flee, That I come not — with the twi- Was lost amid a mist of tears, 'Neath the Old Elm Tree ! lights. To the Old Elm Tree ! And there are none to love me now, They cannot rest beside it, As in the days of yore ; Nor feel my presence there ; My mother sleeps a dreamless sleep, For my spirit breathes a vesper And loves and smiles no more ! Upon the silent air. And strangers claim the pleasant home A breath of poetry and flowers, Where she was wont to be — A song of bird and bee. They even call the ground their own, Is mingled with enchanted hours, 'Round the Old Elm Tree ! And the Old Elm Tree ! (673) 43