Pike County Ballads and Other Poems

WORDS.

  When violets were springing
    And sunshine filled the day,
  And happy birds were singing
    The praises of the May,
  A word came to me, blighting
    The beauty of the scene,
  And in my heart was winter,
    Though all the trees were green.

  Now down the blast go sailing
    The dead leaves, brown and sere;
  The forests are bewailing
    The dying of the year;
  A word comes to me, lighting
    With rapture all the air,
  And in my heart is summer,
    Though all the trees are bare.