The Argosy — page 337: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

LOOKING BACK. Are the sun-ripe apples gathered ? Do the violets scent the bed P The almond-breathing clematis Full clustered overhead ? Is the autumn air as balmy, And the evening sky as red? Are ruddy leaves yet falling On the dew-ensiivered lawn? Do butterflies still flicker When the vapours are withdrawn Over blossoms flush’d or fading, Fire-tinted as the dawn ? Is light and shadow dreaming In the sheltered laurel glade P In the wilderness I planted Do the birds sing undismayed— The old birds, and the nestlings That were hatched beneath its shade ? The shapes of breezy whiteness That gamboll’d at my feet, With eager eyes, and loving cries, And life at fever-heat— They are resting in the twilight Of that ever-green retreat. O sweet it was to loiter With one no longer Here ; The sunny stillness shaken By carols loud and clear: / Our pleasant talk suspended For joys of eye and ear. To greet the budding spring-time And watch the year’s decay, And make my heart the counterpart Of Nature’s ebb and play, That weeps and grieves, and sheds her leaves, To smile again in May. C. M. GEMMER. COMMICLDOOLKS: (Elo) m