Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/54

IN WAR TIME But now the young man's wandering heart from the great world turned away,

To long for the healthful Monmouth meads, the shores of the breezy bay;

And often the scenes and mates he knew in boyhood he sought again,

And roamed through the well-known woods, and lay in the grass where he once had lain.

III

, in silks and laces,

Lunching with lips that gleam,

Know you aught of the places

Yielding such fruit and cream?

South from your harbor-islands

Glisten the Monmouth hills;

There are the ocean highlands,

Lowland meadows and rills,

Berries in field and garden,

Trees with their fruitage low,

Maidens (asking your pardon)

Handsome as cities show.

Know you that, night and morning,

A beautiful water-fay,

Covered with strange adorning,

Crosses your rippling bay?

Her sides are white and sparkling;

She whistles to the shore;

Behind, her hair is darkling,

And the waters part before.

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