Classic Poem

In a broad, grassy field,
By the old turnpike's side;
Once grew a bed of fairest flowers,
Of early Spring the pride.

Close to the craggy hill,
And near a walnut tree;
Those lilies fair, though years have fled,
I seem again to see!

Amidst green, speckled leaves,
The graceful flowers were found;
Each, pendant on a slender stem,
Bent gazing on the ground.

With playmates there I strayed,
When April days had come;
To search for buds, or opening flowers,
And bear my treasures home.

But, like my childhood's hours,
Their beauty now is fled;
Their flowers no more the field adorn,
And hid their lowly bed.

The grassy field's destroyed,
Where they so long had grown;
And the yellow violet now no more
By the children there is known!