Page:The songs that Quinte sang.djvu/15

 EAR comrades of a vanished past,
 * My childhood’s playmates, kind and true,

Who dwell on Quinte’s sunlit shore,
 * I give these songs to you.

Old Quinte sang them in my ears
 * Long years ago, when I was young,

I give them back in later years,
 * The songs that Quinte sung.

How often when a child I strayed
 * Dear Quinte’s peaceful shores along,

My heart and soul responding to
 * The music of her song.

The wild bird oft would hush its song
 * Whilst skimming by on outspread wing

And listen while old Quinte taught
 * Her poet child to sing.

And this the sum of all she taught,
 * As tranquilly she flowed along,

Through all these years I’ve not forgot,
 * “Live, suffer and be strong.”

Though but a child I understood,
 * Why Quinte sang that song to me,

And my young heart was hushed and soothed
 * By her sweet minstrelsy.