Classic Poem

What hath life to charm us? Flowers
Whose sweet lips have ever sung
Carols from the fields and bowers,
In perfume's universal tongue.
Choral fairies bright and merry!
Hark! I hear your silver bells,
Chiming from the tufted dells
A May-day welcome—hey down derry!

Hark again! those jocund calls
Are Echo's voice, who loves to mock
The laughter of the waterfalls
That leap for joy from rock to rock.
And now the winds their organ ply,
Tuned to the music of the birds,
And rustling leaves and lowing herds,
Oh! what a thrilling harmony!

Joys there are of wider scope,—
Our social and domestic ties,
Faith, love, charity, and hope,
With all their mingled ecstacies.
And mental bliss that never cloys,
But charms the head and thrills the heart;
Life! how grand a boon thou art!
Life! how sumless are thy joys!