CHILDHOOD.
267
Among the flowers, and with the fruits
To change and ripen slow;
I watched them through all changes, there
Upon the grass I lay
Snowed over by the blossoms light
That fell so thick in May;
I saw the currant strips that hung
Transparent on the stems
They clothed as in the Eastern tale
With many coloured gems;
I watched the peach's sunny cheek
Turn slowly on the wall,
And with no guess at Nature's laws
Saw many an apple fall;
Gold-tinted, rosy-tinged, their hues
Were mine, and I as they;
The purple bloom was on my life,
The down unbrushed away;
My world was then like His that first
A happy garden knew,
Unworn, and fresh, and glistening bright
With shining spheres of dew;
My soul was full of light that passed
As through a tinctured pane
In warm and vermeil hues, and cast
On all its gorgeous stain;
The dial on its grassy mound
That silent marked the hours,
(Time's footfall then awoke no sound,
That only trod on flowers),
To change and ripen slow;
I watched them through all changes, there
Upon the grass I lay
Snowed over by the blossoms light
That fell so thick in May;
I saw the currant strips that hung
Transparent on the stems
They clothed as in the Eastern tale
With many coloured gems;
I watched the peach's sunny cheek
Turn slowly on the wall,
And with no guess at Nature's laws
Saw many an apple fall;
Gold-tinted, rosy-tinged, their hues
Were mine, and I as they;
The purple bloom was on my life,
The down unbrushed away;
My world was then like His that first
A happy garden knew,
Unworn, and fresh, and glistening bright
With shining spheres of dew;
My soul was full of light that passed
As through a tinctured pane
In warm and vermeil hues, and cast
On all its gorgeous stain;
The dial on its grassy mound
That silent marked the hours,
(Time's footfall then awoke no sound,
That only trod on flowers),
