The Lover’s Walk

LOVER'S WALK. (For the Improvement Era.) Over the village orchards All aflame the orioles fly; The grossbeaks mounting like the lark Now float their songs from the sky; The brooklet softly murmurs Refrain to a lover's song; And I have asked for that priceless pearl The love for which I long! I hear the brooklet murmuring And the song-thrush warble his lay; I hear my own heart throb and throb— But her face is turned away— 0 love! will you answer love for love? Or shall I have answer "Nay?" Answer, sweet eyes, in glad surprise, Love's own sweet power divine! Answer, sweet words, in the chorus of birds, ' 'All mine, forever mine!" And the murmured words in the chorus of birds, Answered: ' 'Forever thine!'' Twitter away, twitter away, 0, sparrows, within your leafy bowers! You are not half so happy today As we who gather the sweet June flowers! Sunny bright is the meadow, And sunny bright' is the field, And a lover knows Where the sweet wild rose Has many a bud revealed.

684 IMPROVEMENT ERA. We have gathered of buds and blossoms A nosegay sweet and bright; With buds as red as lips that wed With mine in a lover's delight! And the blush of the rose And her cheek's soft blush Are alike in a lover's sight! Fly not away, 0 sunny day, Fly not away too soon, But tarry for happy lovers, With the music and flowers of June! The song-thrush warbles a sweeter song In his home in the black-thorn tree; The wild dove plaintively coos his love And the meadow-lark pipes from the lea! 0, birds, have you guessed our secret? Are ye singing of days to be? Shall our love live long With its summers of song, Of brooks and meadows and woodland trees, Of whispering willows and droning bees? Will its undertone, My sweet, my own, Be ever like summer for you and me? Linger, sweet moments, Tarry, sweet hours, The long shadows, gliding too soon, Bring their dark forms to our woodland bowers, With the flight of the sweet afternoon. The yellow-chat saucily lingers to prate And chatter his love song sweet; The whippoorwill wearily calls to its mate And flutters away from our feet. While hand in hand we are homeward bound, Loitering long on the way, Watching together the sunset fade In the shadowy twilight gray. Then hand in hand by the gate we'stand With the calm, sweet world at rest; And of all sweet love that lover's have won, Our love is the sweetest and best! Joseph L. Townsend. Payson, Utah.