Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-16
IN ARCADIA.

The following poem, by James Russell Lowell,
was read at the Papryus Club in Boston on Thurs
day, February oath:
l, walking the familiar street,
While crammed horse car tinkled throughit,
Was lifted from my prosy feet
And in Arcadia ere knew it..
Fresh sward of gravel soothed my thread
And shepherds pipes my ear delighted
The riddle may be lightly read
| met two lovers newly pGghted.
They murmured by in happy care,
New plans fer paradise devisng,
Just as the moon with peLsive stare,
Ger Mistress Craigies pines was rising.
Astarte, known three score years,
Me TO no speeches. rapture urges;
Them in ElYsium she enspheres,
Queen, from Of old, OF thaumaturgeS.
The ratings put forth bud aud bloom,
The house fronts all with myrtles twi them,
And lght-winged Loves in every room
Makes nests and then with kisses line them
o sweetness of untasted life
dream, its own supreme fulhllment
hours with all illusion rife,
As ere the heart OWNED what i'll meant
Ell ego, sighed 1 to myself
And strove some vain regrets TO bride,
Z" Though now laid dusty on the shelf,
Was hero once of such an idyl
" An ldyl ever newly sweet,
Although since Adams dayseeited,
Whose measures time them TO Loves feet
Whose sense is every i'll requited-
Maiden. ii | may counsel, drain
Each drop OF this enchanted season,
For even our honeymoons must wane,l
Convicted Of green cheese by Reason
and none will seem so safe from change,
Nor in such skies benignant hover,
As this, beneath whose witcbery strange
You tread on rose leaves with your lover.
The glass untitled all tastes can fit,
As round its brim Conjecture dances,
For not Mephisto's self hath wit
To draw such vintages Fancy's.
When our pulse beats its minor key,
When play-time halves and school time doubles,
Age fills the cup with serious tea
Which one Dame Cliquot starred with bubbles
{" Fie, Mr.. Lowell is this wise
Is this the moral Of a poet
Who, when the plant of Eden dies,
Is privileged once more to SOW itl
"That herb of clay-disdaining root,
From stars secreting what it feeds on,
Is burntout passions Stag and SCOT
Fit soil to strew its dainty seeds on?
:" Pray, why, if in Arcadia once,
Need one so soon forget the way there!
Or why, once there, be such Ounce
Asnot contentedly to stay theref"
Dear child, It's but sorry Jest,
And from my heart hate the cynlc
Who makes the ok OF Life a nest
For comments staler than rabbinic.
II Love ms simple spell but keep,
Life with ideal eyes to fatter,
The Grail itself were crockery cheap
To Every days communion platter.
One Darby is to me well known
Who, as the hearth between them 0lazes,
Sees the old moonlight shine on Joan
And float her youthward in its hazes.
He rubs his spectac'es, and stsres-
lis the same face that witched him esrly
He feels for his remaining hairs
Is this fleece that fees so curly
" Good heavens but now t was winter gray,
And | Of years had more than plenty;
The almaIiac's fool It's May!
Hang family Bibles am twenty
"Come, Joan, your ann well walk the room
The lane, mesn-do you remember?
How confident the roses bloom,
As if il meier could be December.
" Nor NOR, it shall, while ia your eyes
My heart its summer heat RECEIVERS,
And you, howe'er Jour spirit lies,
Find your old beauty III Your lovers.