Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-08-26
Amid the Grasses.


And weave once more the tender daisy-chain
And ringlets of the dandelion fine.
Come, sing and Groom and chant,
Here turks no aching want
Of past or present;
Here honey-bind is found,
And creeping DER the ground
Mellow sunbeams pleasant
Comel live in tender joys and sweet embrace
Of bird-notes dropping hither,
All IN the golden autumn weather,
All in the grasses and gray leaves together
And see how eyes shine out from fair youns
faces
In gentians blue, that catch the THISTLE
feather;
Come, breathe and live!
For here grow sweetall gracious things tt
give.
Here noddeth fine
My Lady Columbine;
Jacket and Breeches, some do call her.
Oh, naughty name! She is my Lady Colum
bine!
May no i'll frost or plucking hant. befall herl
Oh, hither come and hide!
Here In the grasses nestle, nestle deep witt
mel
Here with my bounteous love and me
abidei
Sweet nature, queen OF all green things that
bel
For over all
Some high spirit mystical
With vaporous form and golden-drooping hair,
Breathes through the drowsy skies
The mellow-tinted India-summer air-
And offers sacrifice!
All! what's so sweet
AS the tripping, twinkling feet
OF the brooklet meath the willows?
And what, ahl what's SO fair
AS the summer air,
And the lark high up in its fieecy pillows?
And here IN the meadow land far below
We can listen and catch the streamlet's flow,
And hear the lark till he's out OF sight
In the breezy blue above the hill,
And watch the sunbeams drop and fill
Each little nower-cup with delight;
For here the shadows are soft and still
Hist be hushed as startled mole
Curied in its cradle; for over the knoll
" see the soft brown twitching ear
Oi thesny gray rabSM peepmg
tt thinks that we are sleeping
Nature snd l. Ha, ha!
: And soon more near
crouch his form and crop the hillside
Etender;
And if the winds blow by,
!, knows them, knows them just as well as I,
Nor fears their shrill pipes slender
how alott the old crows caw!-
Cal cal
ked black crows that fill their nav
-{l.b pretty deld-tares. What shamel
Here's one that built his nest close by,
Last summer, and the grasses lie
Trampled by the path he came.
|kSeel here deep down are MOSES and sweet
I'll ferns,
Al And meadow-fire that burns:
Al Love torch, they call it rather
n Or Cupid cup, If maidens pluck and
gather.
|I Here indiana. pc, the fairies smoke
HI They light il by the meadow fire
III And here the magic ring they broke
When dancing to their cricket choir.
And her are spicy mints,
nd club-head lichens iull of treakish dints
OF toothsome elves, and prints
q winding pathways thro' the reedy
grasses,
here, hurryihg wild, the emmet's army
L passes;
Here dainty roads,
mere, shining soft, the velvet-coated
toads,
Crushing the herbage, pant when rain is over,
Hopping to meet their loves in musky clover;
Aud here the field-mouse comes,
Stealing sweet natures crumbs
Seeds that she plants tor mice and birds un-
ri needed;
Far from the cark OF men
She stores her wealth OF grain
Way-side farms by walls, brier-grown and
over-weeded.
\ Here, here watch them come
The wild bee with his drum;
The fitting dragon-fy with azure wing;
The painted moths; and lol
With his sharp, wiry low,
The elbowed grasshopper, with sudden spring
o. x4l,<% %l..a 1
While flutering down like shells through
some blue ocean,
In undulations rhythmically slow,
Through the blue-misted air OF autumn lucid
Purple as Tyrian tides, and interlused
With incense odors OF all sweet shrubs
bruised
1he splendid wide-winged maple leaflets
mellow!
Here still are buItercups, so silvery yellow;
And here sweet winter-green, with berries red.
And here from nodding head
~ The feathery dandelion soweth wide
Her venturous parachutes-how light
They mount the breeze, and vanish from the
sight!
And here low-couched abide,
And creeping softly slide
! Arbutus tendrils through the rustling grass,
Waiting for SHOWS to pass,
To breathe once more the verdure OF the
spring.
And here on wing
Come the sharp sparrows, and late robins sing
Their tarewells. So, tarewe,ll
The light doth pass
From sky and vale and mountain
As from some spent and golden-watered
fountain.
So, FAREWELL
While through the meadow-grass
Cricket and restless midge and night-wings
rally
Their forces far and near, ~,
And fill the ear
With paintings of soft plumes and rustlings
clear,
And music shrill and high, through the long
dusky valley.
~. NJ. Briggs. in Harpe9s Mogastne
Story of a Skeleton Skirt.