---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Alfred Lambourne
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 6
published: 1918-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Alfred Lambourne, “The Lilacs,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 6 (April 1918): 515."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2106unse
start_page: 515
end_page: 515
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2106unse
  publication_year: 1918
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Lilacs

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The Lilacs

Alfred Lambourne

Behold, fair Spring doth ope the lilac buds;

And 0, for words that choice and dainty be,

To tell how memory my being floods,

The dreams of youth this fragrance brings to me!

What line shall this exquisiteness suggest,

The whitened edge, the flush within the cell,

A hidden glow like vermil hues that rest

Deep in the cold heart of a tropic shell.

With moisture strange, the lilacs fill mine eyes,

A gladsome dew that gathers into tears;

Entranced I stand, lost in a sweet surprise,

While joys divine come back from out the years.

Here child-like innocence and passion blend;

The rapture of the Prime keeps in the hours;

These clusters treasure bring me without end;

I feel myself once more in Eden's bowers.

Ah, quick; ah, quick, my irised visions fade,

My dreamland palace all in ruin lies!

With you, O lilacs, I have backward strayed

To Hope of youth and April-weeping skies.

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