FAR AND NEAR 



Raining music from above, — 



Full of rapture, full of love ; 

 Frolic, gay, and debonair, 



Yet not all exempt from care. 

 For thy nest is in the grass, 



And thou worriest as I pass ; 

 But no hand nor foot of mine 



Shall do harm to thee or thine ; 

 I, musing, only pause to think 



Of my boyhood's bobolink. 



But no bobolink of mine 



Ever sang o'er mead so fine, — 

 Starred with flowers of every hue, 



Gold and purple, white and blue. 

 Painted cup, anemone, 



Jacob's ladder, fleur-de-lis, 

 Orchid, harebell, shooting-star. 



Crane's bill, lupine, seen afar. 

 Primrose, rubus, saxifrage. 



Pictured type on Nature's page, — 

 These and others, here unnamed. 



In northland gardens, yet untamed. 

 Deck the fields where thou dost sing. 



Mounting up on trembhng wing ; 

 Yet in wistful mood I think 



Of my boyhood's bobolink. 



On Unalaska's emerald lea, 

 On lonely isles in Bering Sea, 

 100 



