Page:Poems Shipton.djvu/78

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The river seemed to flow along
 The flowery bank I trod,
And every sigh for things of time
 Withdrew my heart from God.

No vision of my Father's house
 Upon the shadows stole;
Earth, with its pictured beauty, held
 Captive my willing soul.
"Oh, for the bird's free wing," I sighed,
 "And those fair fields of ours!"
Hark! from the street a low voice cries,
 "Buy Everlasting Flowers!"

As sunbeams in the Lapland sky
 Disperse the nights of gloom,
A strange sweet gladness echoed in
 That solitary room.
Sweeter than singing bird or bee,
 Amid earth's fading bowers,
Awoke the echo in my heart,
 "Sweet Everlasting Flowers!"

"Buy,buy!" and as it rose again,
 The stranger's plaintive cry,
Another voice seemed whispering,
 "The wine and milk come buy: