Classic Poem

Sweet buds and berries gathered, far and wide,
In haunted glens or wild sequestered ways;
By sun or starlight,—in the purple pride,
Of Summer, or in Autumn's golden haze;—
Long have I held ye, clasped within my hands,
Wooing your mystic odors to restore
The sweet aroma of those flowery lands;—
The perfume of the days that are no more:
Sad Autumn leaves, touched with the fatal glow
Kindling athwart the forest's silent gloom,
Farewell! I fling ye on the way-side now,
Where heedless feet may trample on your bloom;
For, through the silence and the o'ershadowing calm,
Floats the far perfume of the Eden palm.