Summer on the Lakes
SUMMER ON THE LAKES.
Summer days of busy leisure,
Long summer days of dear-bought pleasure,
You have done your teaching well;
Had the scholar means to tell
How grew the vine of bitter-sweet,
What made the path for truant feet,
Winter nights would quickly pass,
Gazing on the magic glass
O'er which the new-world shadows pass;
But, in fault of wizard spell,
Moderns their tale can only tell
In dull words, with a poor reed
Breaking at each time of need.
But those to whom a hint suffices
Mottoes find for all devices,
See the knights behind their shields,
Through dried grasses, blooming fields.
TO A FRIEND.
Some dried grass-tufts from the wide flowery plain,
A muscle shell from the lone fairy shore,
Some antlers from tall woods which never more
To the wild deer a safe retreat can yield,
An eagle's feather which adorned a Brave,
Well-nigh the last of his despairing band,
For such slight gifts wilt thou extend thy hand
When weary hours a brief refreshment crave?
I give you what I can, not what I would,
If my small drinking-cup would hold a flood,
As Scandinavia sung those must contain
With which the giants gods may entertain;
In our dwarf day we drain few drops, and soon must thirst again.
SUMMER ON THE LAKES,
IN 1843.
BY
S. M. FULLER.
BOSTON:
CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES S. FRANCIS AND COMPANY.
MDCCCXLIV.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1844,
By S. M. Fuller,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES,
WASHINGTON STREET.