WHOEVER passeth by that way
May smell the subtile scent of hay,
Large lilac tufts and hawthorn gay,
Through all the long, blue summer day.
Whoever passeth, pray mark well,
The grace and light of hyacinth bell;
The glowing depth of blue speedwell,
The daisy, tipt like any shell.
Tall, ragged Robin, blushing bright.
Strange, starry flowers so small and white,
Sweet violets that with delight
Perfume the balmy summer night.
On tangled brake the fragrant rose,
Vermilion red, luxuriant grows;
While queen of the meadow ever shoes
White coronals that breathe repose.
Beneath the alders spreading wide,
Fresh yellow cowslips side by side
With pale primroses, crowd and hide,
Where other summer gems abide.
'Mong dewy grasses on the lea,
Around the brook and 'neath the tree,
Like white waves on a surging sea,
Spreads out the white anemone.
Upon the fields the short green corn
Shelters the larks that have been born
To skim the blushing skies at morn,
When Summer doth the world adorn.
The feathery birches on the wold,
Their twinkling branches round enfold
The sportive lambkins, growing old,
Cropping the buttercups of gold.
#And see! o'er knolls and vales serene,
A carpet spread of glistening sheen,
Or curling ferns and brackens green,
The richest, freshest ere were seen.
The tall dark pines so stately look
Beside the cottage, by the brook,
A shepherd lad, with closèd book,
Reposing lies, and knotted crook.
His cattle wandering at their will,
Some lying down, some standing still;
The thirsy lap the noisy rill
That coarseth down the vernal hill.
O fairest hues, O matchless scene!
Thou comest o'er me like a dream
That long, long to my soul hath been
A perfect heaven with earth between.
[This is No. 13 of Jane Paxton Smieton's Poems & Ballads]