In the fields that are fair with the blooms of the clover,
    No garlands are grown for the arbors of shade
  Where the woes of the wood in their darkness hang over
    The grasses that wave with the winds of the glade;
  From the chimes of the breezes there echo no measures
    That gladden the gale with a music divine;
  In the troubles they languish who shrink from the pleasures,
    They weep in the shadow that rail at the shine.

  Ah, the world is abounding with wonderful glories
    And wild are the warbles that sweeten its ways
  While the songs of the land sing their beautiful stories,
    And scatter their melodies over the days! 
  There are smiles, there are joys, never mingled with sorrow,
    O, man, in return for the tears that are thine,
  And the soul never sobs that has hopes for the morrow,
    Nor weeps in the shadow nor rails at the shine!

THE GROWTH OF SONG.

  A tender song in shadows grew,
  And humble hearts were homes it knew.

  But through its wondrous music stole
  The longings of the human soul;

  The hopes of hosts unsatisfied
  Within its numbers wandered wide;

  And strangely wet with toilsome tears
  It held the yearnings of the years;

  Till millions with their woes oppressed,
  Proclaimed the song of peace and rest;

  Till nations in their troubled ways
  Found comfort in the joyous lays,

  And all the halting race of wrong
  Exalts the loving might of song!

  Ah, song that soothes our many cries
  With fondness of thy lullabies,

  We love, we bless, we scepter thee
  Proud empress of the hearts that be!

SPRING AND MUSIC.

  Spring, among her sylvan shades,
  And the gladness of her glades,
    Once in dreamy hours was straying,
  Where sweet Music with her throngs
  Of glad melodies and songs
    In the happy vales was playing.

  Pan beheld the fairy maids
  As they gamboled in the shades,
    And he swore they should not sever. 
  But that o’er the blooming land,
  Heart to heart and hand in hand,
    They should wander on forever.

  Thus when come the gentle days
  O’er the wildwood’s tangled ways,
    There is found no gloomy weather;
  For among the leafy bowers
  And the valleys bright with flowers
    Spring and Music walk together!

COMPENSATION.

  The softest beams of the stars are born in the farthest skies,
  And fairest rays of the sun where evening shadows rise;
  The sweetest songs of the bird are sung in the darkest days,
  And rarest blooms of the spring are found in the wildest ways.

  The brightest blush of the rose is blown as the petals fade. 
  The greenest grass of the earth is grown in the hidden glade;
  The fondest rhyme of the rill is heard in the secret vale,
  And lightest lays of the breeze are borne from the dying gale.