Communings With Nature.

No. VI.

The Evergreen

By Grace Aguilar.

The evergreen! mid nature’s bloom,
Why art thou sad and lone?
We leave thee as a thing of gloom,
That hath no gleesome tone.

Thou art so changeless, that we deem
No poesy dwells in thee,
No vision’d love, no shadowy dream
Shrin’d in thy leaves may be.

We heed thee not, when spring’s sweet voice
Comes laughing on the breeze,
When new-born flow’rets wait our glance,
And light hath touch’d the trees.

We see thee not, when summer’s smile
Hath pierc’d earth’s quiv’ring heart,—
Bidding her buds that slept awhile,
To bloom in thousands start.

Mid autumn’s glory still thou art,
And still we pass thee by,
To garner in our wayward heart
The beauty that must die.

In winter’s storms,—ah, there alone,
When all is bleak and bare,
We love to list thy changeless tone,
To feel—our friend is there.

And still thou smilest,—man’s neglect,
Rude storm, and blighting blast,
Thine upward growth have, never checked,
Nor lain thee with the past.

Thou’rt ever present,—ever nigh,
In meek endurance still,
Oh, ingrate man, to pass thee by,
Till life brows changed and chill!

Emblem of God’s omnific love,
His never-changing care!
Fair shrub, His faithfulness to prove,
Thou’rt scatter’d ev’ry where.

Constant in every varied scene,
Of Nature’s joy and brief,
For this I bless thee, evergreen,
And love thy fadeless leaf.

And feel how much of poesy lies
In thy still changeless shrine;
Unto the heart thy voice replies,
With whisperings divine!