Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1844-05-23
POE u Y.
For the Ypsilanti Sentinel.
MEMORIES OF EARLY YEARS.


For the Ypsianti Sentinel.
MEMORIES OF EARLY YEARS.
BY MRS. LOIS B. ADAMS.
dedicated to the compenions Of my childhood;
Long ycars>have passed since silence flung
Her dreamy spell Ger forests green,
Where throug h its wide and winding vale
The Huron's silver waves are seen.
Long years of change, and joy and grief,
Of ceaseless toll, and care md pain;
And art has vainly strove to bring
Its primal beauty back again.
Where once that verdant forest hug
frs dropping branches DER the stream,
Proud Art has reared her princely domes
Like castles in charm'd dream.
And manhood in his glorious pride.
81 Amid his gli,tsring wealth sppears
And sentler iforms in sorrow tried.
Like grief-consoling angels glide
To dry afflicuon's flowing tears.
And more belov'j by virtue bright,
And dearer still to manaood's sight,
Than Fashions peerless daughters,
Do hue-eyed children garlands irvine,
From buds in Flora's bowers that shine,
Beside the Huron waters.
Yet twine your flowers ye laughing ones.
And wreathe them round each cherub brow,
Nos think that hands now cold and dead,
Have clasp'd them once as ye do now.
Bend DER the lucid stream that steals
Around yon bank Of messy green, l
Your mirthfal eyes and cluSeslng cuks
Beneath its crystal waves ale seen.
But feet as young as yours have pressed
The same green moss that round you lies,
And bending forms have gazed below
On glowing cheeks and loving eyes.
Ah. We are children now. and they
Like all the dead have passed away,
Beloved and known no more,-
Thus other haads will gather flowers.
And braid the willow stems for bowers,
When your short lives are DER.
Stih fancy loves so far away
Amid her o'den haunts to stray,
And picture to my gazing eye,
The playmates lov'd of years gone by.
see them now as once they stood
Where never pole-face trod before,
Beneath that low, empowering woods
That skirts the Huron's winding shore.
Their sires had left their eastern homes
The church yards where their kindred rest,
And sought afar the "promis'd land"
The then, unbounded west
Their simple cabins meath the trees
Bathed in the sunbeams' glrmmeriBg light
Had each its wealth of household gods,
Its children beautiful and bright.
And there they stand, as fair a group
As ever graced the wildwood lone,
And truer hearts, or lovelier forms,
Tn festaI halls were never known.
The eldest of the childish band
Clasps in her arms her parents'joy,
With watcbful care she guards from harm
heir lov'd and peited infant hoy.
And one with manly air. and brow
With boyish triumph flushing now.
So lightly springs from hawthorn copse.
With snowy blossoms gaily crown'd.
And prince-like, asks the homage due
OF all lie fairy realm around
Bur needless of his high command.
One sylph-like form is dancing where
Her brothers willow whistle rings
Its rustic music on the air;
And one with eyes so blue and mild,
Trips lightly round the fairy scene.
Then, timid as a wood.nymph wild,
She hides behind the willows green.
Afraid to kneel at Rollins call,
Or dance with happy Angelina.
Behind her waving sylvan wall
Her blue eyes mid the violets shine.
But Ellen stands space apart,
Her hand uprais'd 10 silence long;
Amid yon hazel thicket low,
She hears the mock >bird's thrilling song.
Sweet Ellen, thy dark, lustrous eyes,
Thy richly flowing curls ofjet,
Thy cheek with childish beauty warm,
Thy rosebud lips, see them yet.
4 see them yet as then they seem'd,
When mingled mirth and passion cleaned
From thy dark eyes on me,
As list'ning to each varying note,
j caught them from the mock. birds throat.
And sung in sportive glee;
Or through the blossom'd thicket sprung,
smear the old Indian Ford, Ypsilanti.