June


The high grass waves, with varied hues
 Of wild flowers glowing 'mid the green;
The woods have caught a deeper shade,
 And darkly skirt the distant scene.

The white-throat sings from every brake
 The blackbird breathes a sweet reply;
The lark's shrill fairy notes awake
 The echoes of his native sky:

The pale wild rose is blushing near;
 And clinging tendrils round it twine,
That throw their gay and graceful wreaths
 In many a varied waving line.

There tremble on the slender stem
 The barley's rich and bending heads;
And here the pea, in winged bloom,
 Along the air its fragrance sheds.

I cannot smile, though all the scene
 Is gay in Nature's brightest guise;
I think on hours that once have been,
 And clouds o'er all the landscape rise.


And can no charm that nature knows
 The fatal power of grief destroy?
Ah, no! in vain each beauty glows
 When mem'ry has no gleam of joy!