Muse and Mint

Chapter 20: BOY

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About This Book

A varied collection of short lyrical poems that observes nature and rural life, using seasonal imagery—sap, snow, rivers, cherries—and simple domestic scenes to reflect on change, beauty, and small joys. Sections shift between fireside recollections, sentimental and philosophical meditations, homiletic and religious pieces, and light humor, blending devotional songlike verses with moral aphorisms and affectionate memory. The voice moves between wistful and buoyant moods, finding consolation and ethical insight in commonplace experiences, while concise stanzas and vivid images emphasize mood and moral reflection rather than a continuous narrative.

BOY

Boy, thou art the work of ages,

Disporting by creation’s glades and streams—

Laughing at the sages

And filling all the pages

Of time eternal with thy hopes and dreams!

Boy, thou art the work of nature,

Commingling of earth and air and fire—

In consciousness and feature

A juvenescent creature

With active mind and limbs that never tire.

Boy, thou art the work of gladness

And meant to fill the world with lusty shout,

With laughter, not with sadness,

With goodness, not with badness,

With eager confidence and not with doubt!

Boy, thou art the work of Heaven,

A thought to give the world a bonnie heir—

A living joyous leaven,

A spirit nobly driven

To try the future and divinely dare!