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LITTLE BOOK OF GARDEN SONGS 
 
"Whispers and smells of the sea" 
 
LITTLE BOOK OF 
 GARDEN SONGS 
 
 BY 
 
 LURA COOLLEY HAMIL 
 
 WITH DRAWINGS BY J. RANDOLPH BROWN 
 
 Boston 
 
 The Four Seas Company 
 
 Publishers 
 
^^v 
 
 The Four Seas Company 
 
 
 Copyright, 192 1, by ' ^ • ^ 
 
 The Four Seas Press 
 Boston, Mass., U. S. A, 
 
 MAR 3U 1322 
 g)n!.A661,672 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Garden of Long Ago 
 
 Larkspur and Lilies Tall 
 
 Dream-Flowers 
 
 fThe Pine-Tree 
 
 In Far Japan 
 
 Forsaken 
 
 Sweet Winds that Blow 
 
 The Worried Gardener 
 
 Blue-bells 
 
 The Wicket Gate . 
 
 Transplanted 
 
 There is a Day in Spring 
 
 Summer Night 
 
 The Connoisseur . 
 
 Early-blooming Tulips . 
 
 Darwin Tulips 
 
 My Tree 
 
 Canterbury Bells . 
 
 At Touch of Spring 
 
 Pilfered Sweets 
 
 The Iris Border . 
 
 The Evening Sky 
 
 My Neighbor Elm 
 
 New Hampshire Woods 
 
 Noon-time Shower 
 
 Bare Boughs 
 
 Late Rose 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 "Whispers and smells of the sea" Frontispiece 
 
 "Dewy paths where fairies pass" ... 8 
 
 "Larkspur and lilies tall" 11 
 
 "Down streets that wind" .... 17 
 
 "The wicket gate" 21 
 
 "Summer night" '25 
 
 "Canterbury bells" 31 
 
 "The iris border" 35 
 
 "New Hampshire woods" 39 
 
 "Late rose" 43 
 
LITTLE BOOK OF GARDEN SONGS 
 
'Dewy paths where fairies pass' 
 
GARDEN OF LONG AGO 
 
 Queen Anne's lace and sparrow grass, 
 Garden pinks and fern, 
 Dewy paths where fairies pass 
 When fire-fly lanterns burn. 
 
 Shadows where the holly-hocks 
 Clustered by the wall 
 Back of phlox and four-o'clocks 
 Grow so straight and tall. 
 
 Garden of my childhood dreams 
 In memory to dwell, 
 Sweeter seems than ever gleams 
 From aught but magic's spell. 
 
 [9] 
 
LARKSPUR AND LILIES TALL 
 
 Larkspur and lilies tall, 
 
 Poppies blood-red, 
 Bloom by a garden wall. 
 
 Blue sky o'erhead. 
 All out-door blossoms these, 
 
 Sturdy and strong, 
 Kissed by the summer breeze 
 
 The whole day long. 
 
 Lark, bee and humming-bird 
 
 All loiter here 
 And by sheer gladness stirred 
 
 Thrushes sing clear. 
 A sheltered place is this, 
 
 Peaceful and still, 
 Green fields around and high 
 
 One sheltering hill. 
 
 Bring me your blossoms all, 
 
 Come, children dear! 
 Sit with me by this wall; 
 
 We'll weave them here, 
 Larkspur and lilies tall. 
 
 Poppies blood-red, 
 Fragrance and grace recall 
 
 Beauty long dead. 
 
 [Copyright, 1921, by Arthur P. Schmidt Co.] 
 [10] 
 
'Larkspur and lilies tall' 
 
DREAM-FLOWERS 
 
 In my mother's garden are growing 
 Flowers I used to see, 
 And a soft wind is ever blowing 
 That whispers and smells of the sea. 
 
 Now and then through the hours 
 My curtains sway in the air 
 And set me to dreaming of flowers 
 Like the painted blossoms there. 
 
 Flowers born in the sunshine and nurtured by wind 
 
 and rain. 
 I seize them and hold them and love them, though I 
 
 never shall walk there again! 
 
 [12] 
 
THE PINE-TREE 
 
 The pine-tree's branches are darkly green 
 And it grows so straight and high 
 As though it made for the flowers a screen 
 Against the burning sky. 
 
 In the deepest shade the flowers are few 
 Who choose in that spot to grow. 
 But crocuses do and violets blue 
 With yellow and white for show. 
 
 But against its greenness the flowers all 
 Show in lovely silhouette. 
 
 There are lilies and larkspur and fox-glove tall 
 And poppies and mignonette. 
 
 And the spicy breath of the pine-tree blends 
 With the scent of the flowers there 
 As its height to the humble garden lends 
 A gravely distinguished air. 
 
 [13] 
 
IN FAR JAPAN 
 
 In far Japan the iris grow 
 
 On the roofs of the houses there. 
 
 Fair in the sunshine planted, the fragrance sweet 
 
 does go 
 With every breeze through the stunted trees 
 In those Japanese gardens fair. 
 
 It is an isle of blossoms sweet 
 
 And the little people know 
 
 Secrets we blindly grope for, so delicate, so fleet. 
 
 Is the magic they, in their foreign way, 
 
 Use to make their flowers grow. 
 
 [14] 
 
FORSAKEN 
 
 I know a garden where the daffodils 
 And crocuses grow wild and every spring 
 Untended, show their colors. Sweetness fills 
 The air and strangers pause to drink it in. 
 Palsied the hand that planted. Still they bring 
 Sweet memories of care that theirs has been. 
 
 [15] 
 
SWEET WINDS THAT BLOW 
 
 Sweet winds that blow, 
 
 And bring the scent of blossoms back to me 
 From an old garden planted by the sea 
 Loved long ago. 
 
 Down streets that wind 
 
 With turnings well-remembered from my youth, 
 Past door-ways stark and unadorned as truth, 
 My way I'd find. 
 
 For I could go 
 
 Blind-folded, so my memory holds the place 
 And know again each gentle kindly face 
 I used to know. 
 
 Sweet winds that blow 
 
 And bring the scent of blossoms back to me 
 From an old garden planted by the sea 
 Loved long ago. 
 
 [16] 
 
'Down streets that wind' 
 
THE WORRIED GARDENER 
 
 It is cold and the wind grows colder. 
 
 I fear for my flowers so. 
 They need the sun till they're older. 
 
 They have only started to grow. 
 
 I can not cover them over 
 
 For the wind blows the blanket away. 
 He acts like a spiteful rover. 
 
 I have fought with him all the day. 
 
 All my way to school and returning 
 I faced the cold and the rain. 
 
 If my cheeks could share their burning, 
 My flowers would be warm again. 
 
 [18] 
 
BLUE BELLS 
 
 Pendant bells like joy-bells ringing, 
 Breath of woodland sweetness bringing. 
 Sun and air and wood-birds singing 
 Blue-bells meant to me. 
 
 Childhood's roaming and exploring 
 Shady paths, old joys restoring. 
 Laughter, love and youth's out-pouring, 
 You recall to me. 
 
 [19] 
 
THE WICKET GATE 
 
 They wanted a wicket gate to be 
 Where the garden should begin. 
 
 They planned it beautiful to see 
 For it shuts the flowers in. 
 
 They made for it an arch all new. 
 And planted there a rose. 
 
 Oh, it does show a lovely view 
 When you turn the gate to close! 
 
 [20] 
 
^^4 *! r^ -, 
 
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 "The wicket gate' 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Hidden away in a corner I know 
 
 Are shy woods* flowers that used to grow 
 
 Far from the haunts of men. 
 
 They whisper of days that shall be no more 
 
 But sheltered safe they bloom at my door 
 
 As sweetly as they bloomed then. 
 
 For the warm sun finds them here as there 
 
 And the first spring breezes blow as fair, 
 
 As gently wake them here 
 
 From their dreams as sweet as in vanished days 
 
 When they nestled far from our trodden ways 
 
 And they wake with the waking year. 
 
 [22] 
 
THERE IS A DAY IN SPRING 
 
 There is a day in spring, a moment rather 
 When all the joys of all the year are pressed 
 Into one brimming measure, and the town 
 New-washed and fragrant sweet, appears to gather 
 A robe of gauze, transparent, to a breast 
 That beats in kindliness beneath the gown. 
 Then all the tender green or arching trees 
 And all the spring-time scents that fill the air, 
 Streets framed in beauty, evanescent, rare. 
 Bring some fantastic lightening of care 
 And men laugh, sing, forget life's dull decrees 
 Or with new courage run their task to seize, 
 Finding it, too, transfigured and as fair. 
 
 [23] 
 
SUMMER NIGHT 
 
 Night slowly closes in and gently comes 
 The dark, soft stealing in, encircling us 
 With many soft and fragrant murmurings 
 As sinks to rest all nature. Drowsy hums 
 Some insect round the door where luminous 
 The radiance attracts them. Whisperings 
 Of birds that hidden somewhere in the trees 
 Keep up their soft-voiced chirping through the night, 
 And distant first, then near, an owl's long trill 
 Are all that breaks the stillness. Fresh the breeze 
 Springs up and brings a radiant new delight 
 From blossoms stirring that but now were still. 
 
 [24] 
 
"Summer night' 
 
THE CONNOISSEUR 
 
 They look so gay on their slender stems 
 
 All in their bright red and yellow, 
 
 Massed where the tangled shrubbery hems 
 
 The tidy lawn, and the sunlight mellow 
 
 Picks out their colors like wonderful gems 
 
 So lighting their corner, a much duller fellow 
 
 Than I would know tulips, all bright red and yellow. 
 
 [26] 
 
EARLY-BLOOMING TULIPS 
 
 All so proud and arrogant you're growing, 
 
 Tulips in a rov/! 
 Steady face the April wind a-blowing 
 
 As you'd face a foe. 
 Gaily dressed, your colors so deceiving 
 Breathe no perfume, no sweet fragrance leaving. 
 Proud you are and haughty past believing, 
 
 Tulips in a row. 
 
 [27] 
 
DARWIN TULIPS 
 
 Colors to please an artist the Darwin tulip shows, 
 Graceful and tall and lovely in mauve and purple and 
 
 rose 
 Like ladies all dressed for a party, gracious and 
 
 gentle and fair, 
 They light up the whole glad garden in their new 
 
 spring colors there. 
 
 [28] 
 
MY TREE 
 
 In spring my tree is like a lovely out-stretched fan 
 Whose feather tips are leafy fronds so fair and 
 
 delicate against the sky. 
 Its tender colors run the gamut through 
 Showing in turn each lovely tint and new 
 As day does die. 
 
 Stirred by the wind's touch gentle tremors run 
 Through all the tracery. The whole as one 
 Stirs and is swayed like some fair woman's fan. 
 
 [29] 
 
CANTERBURY BELLS 
 
 What poet named you Canterbury bells? 
 What artist looked into your lovely face 
 And found fit naming for your sturdy grace? 
 Blue sky as England's own above you bends. 
 Greensward like that of England round you here 
 Enchantment makes, and bees from far and near 
 Circle you round. Their cadenced humming lends 
 A rhythm like the sound of distant bells. 
 
 [30] 
 
'Canterbury bells' 
 
AT TOUCH OF SPRING 
 
 But yesterday 
 
 They kept, tight-folded, all their sweetness in 
 Nor deigned to share it. Then did Spring begin 
 To coax each bud. Warm rain and sunny day 
 Have worked the magic and each spendthrift breeze 
 Carries a wealth of fragrance and the trees 
 On every hill are blossoming, are blossoming 
 At touch of Spring. 
 
 [32] 
 
PILFERED SWEETS 
 
 Bees to honey-suckle stealing, 
 
 Blooms too deep your sweets concealing — 
 
 So to bandit hordes appealing 
 
 Your sweetness and your flavour. 
 
 Humming-birds like swift thoughts darting, 
 Wav'ring, ling'ring — sudden starting, 
 Airy grace that makes sad parting. 
 Their trust their faith, their favor. 
 
 Spendthrift of your sweets, beguiling 
 Thieves by vain flirtatious smiling. 
 Small the wonder by such wiling 
 They seek to taste, to savor. 
 
 [33] 
 
THE IRIS BORDER 
 
 Iris border all a-bloom. Lavenders and blues. 
 Yellows in their many tints do our choice confuse. 
 All to sight are beautiful. Orchid-like they bloom 
 Making of this sheltered spot a lovely fragrant room. 
 Pallida Dalmatica, stately name and flower, 
 Sweetest blossom of them all. Yours the crowning 
 
 hour. 
 Lavish of the sweetness in your orange-flower scent. 
 Odors of fair Araby in its fragrance blent. 
 Queen you are and should be ever. Charms that will 
 
 not pall 
 Yours by right and not by favor, sweetest of them all. 
 
 [34] 
 
"The iris border' 
 
THE EVENING SKY 
 
 The white moonlight like silver rain sifts through 
 
 the leafy trees; 
 Through ghostly mist of amethyst and yellow shines 
 
 the moon. 
 A lovely sight the dappled white adrift before the 
 
 breeze, 
 The sky doth try her beauties all to show in one 
 
 glad June. 
 
 Last night the light still fairer was as fell the 
 
 evening down. 
 The western sky as day did die held all the passing 
 
 throng. 
 The western glow did linger so they watched it from 
 
 the town, 
 Forgot their lot, and on the sky read plain God's 
 
 even-song. 
 
 [36] 
 
MY NEIGHBOR ELM 
 
 Where late you showed against the sky- 
 In tracings intricate and fine 
 I now look into leafy lanes 
 Wliere birds do nest and fledglings fly 
 In crude and clumsy travesty 
 Of task set for them and their gains 
 You seem to note, oh friendly tree, the same as mine. 
 
 Benevolence and stately grace 
 Are yours and strength and hardihood. 
 The sunshine falls upon your head 
 Undimmed through years that leave no trace. 
 You hold secure your honored place 
 Nor winter's stormy rigors dread, 
 Such storms you've weathered, friendly tree, such 
 gales withstood. 
 
 [37] 
 
NEW HAMPSHIRE WOODS 
 
 I close my eyes and see trees stretch away 
 
 In aisles and vistas whose beginnings here 
 
 Picked out in vivid colors once have flamed 
 
 Upon my sight. Hear all around 
 
 Above and underfoot the soft light sound 
 
 Of autumn leaves' slow falling. Tang of frost in air 
 
 And squirrels busy frisking everywhere. 
 
 The summer's radiance somehow tamed 
 
 Yet all renewed as the declining year 
 
 Brings us its choicest, an October day. 
 
 [38] 
 
"New Hampshire woods" 
 
NOON-TIME SHOWER 
 
 Crashing their noisy way the leafy maples through 
 
 The summer rain-drops fall in sudden shower 
 
 And children hurrying from school 
 
 Take refuge where they may, so straight and true 
 
 Do fall the heavy drops. The air is cool 
 
 And sweet; new-washed each shining leaf and flower. 
 
 [40] 
 
BARE BOUGHS 
 
 Grateful and cool the shade 
 
 When thick the leaves grew on each clustering bough. 
 
 But now, when I their course can trace 
 
 Against the sky where bare they interlace 
 
 I think they never made 
 
 A picture fair as they do now. 
 
 All one expanse of green, 
 
 There was small difference on summer day. 
 
 But now each line some beauty shows 
 
 And like a lovely etching grows. 
 
 Against the sky is seen 
 
 In tracing clear their devious way. 
 
 Color and form they show. 
 
 Likeness and infinite diversity. 
 
 Drawn by a master hand they mark 
 
 In clear unerring way the dark 
 
 Bold lines that vary so. 
 
 How quick we know each differing tree! 
 
 The autumn sky is cold 
 
 And chill the autumn winds around them blow, 
 
 But sturdily they face the wind 
 
 That has their fading foliage thinned, 
 
 And bared the branches old 
 
 Which green another spring will show. 
 
 [41] 
 
LATE ROSE 
 
 All the bright beauty of a summer dead 
 Shines in your face and form, O rose of mine! 
 Blooming so late dressed all in dusky red 
 With shades and broiderings and graceful line 
 That speaks to me of beauty like your own 
 Which lately shown in this loved garden spot 
 Where now I come to mourn them and alone 
 I find you blooming gaily, though forgot. 
 
 Your petals softly modelled, are as sweet 
 As those your sister roses wore of late. 
 Sweeter perhaps, I know not, and you greet 
 Me with a courage and a grace sedate. 
 For you no sunny sky or langourous days. 
 For you the autumn's chill and clouded sky. 
 One burst of sunshine — lo our wondering gaze 
 You hold out promise fair and message high. 
 
 Prized far beyond those others who did late 
 Crowd in such bright profusion, summer-kissed. 
 And for your gay presumption, some kind fate 
 Has kept for you alone the joy they missed. 
 Supreme you reign over the garden you 
 Would have bloomed in unnoticed months ago; 
 And for your daring we give homage true. 
 A Queen of roses, may you linger so! 
 
 [42] 
 
•Late rose' 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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