SUMMER HOURS

by: Horatio Alger (1832-1899)

      t is the year's high noon,
      The earth sweet incense yields,
      And o'er the fresh, green fields
      Bends the clear sky of June.

      I leave the crowded streets,
      The hum of busy life,
      Its clamor and its strife.
      To breathe thy perfumed sweets.

      O rare and golden hours!
      The birds melodious song,
      Wavelike, is borne along
      Upon a strand of flowers.

      I wander far away,
      Where, through the forest trees,
      Sports the cool summer breeze,
      In wild and wanton play.

      A patriarchal elm
      Its stately form uprears,
      Which twice a hundred years
      Has ruled this woodland realm.

      I sit beneath its shade,
      And watch, with careless eye,
      The brook that babbles by,
      And cools the leafy glade.

      In truth I wonder not
      That in the ancient days
      The temples of God's praise
      Were grove and leafy grot.

      The noblest ever planned,
      With quaint device and rare,
      By man, can ill compare
      With these from God's own hand.

      Pilgrim with way-worn feet,
      Who, treading life's dull round,
      No true repose hast found,
      Come to this green retreat.

      For bird, and flower, and tree,
      Green fields, and woodland wild,
      Shall bear, with voices mild,
      Sweet messages to thee.

"Summer Hours" is reprinted from Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving with Other Ballads and Poems. Horatio Alger. Boston: Loring Publisher, 1875.

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