Blue Berries
From elfland’s glades and coverts green
Peering through bars of sun and shade
Are friendly little eyes, I ween,
That glow like sapphires set in jade,
And shyly veil their azure spheres
In summer’s filmiest atmospheres.
There banqueting, we half recline
And sip the perfume redolent
With sweet fern, aromatic pine,
And bayberries’ seductive scent,
An incense rare as smoking spice
That censers raise to Paradise.
The stillness brooding like a pall
O’er thickets and entangled trees
Is stabbed by the shrill blackbird’s call,
And rippled by the wandering breeze
That trails a buzzing dragon fly
Where bumble bees hum drowsily.
Athwart the slant rays of the sun
Far off there glides a cloudland sail
To faery shores. Our task is done -
Our treasure won - a brimming pail.
And no blithe argonaut e’er bore
From legend’s quest a richer store!