Poem by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

First Series. 7. Dank fens of cedar, hemlock branches gray

Dank fens of cedar, hemlock branches gray
With trees and trail of mosses, wringing-wet,
Beds of the black pitchpine in dead leaves set
Whose wasted red has wasted to white away,
Remnants of rain and droppings of decay,
Why hold ye so my heart, nor dimly let
Through your deep leaves the light of yesterday,
The faded glimmer of a sunshine set?
Is it that in your darkness, shut from strife,
The bread of tears becomes the bread of life?
Far from the roar of day, beneath your boughs
Fresh griefs beat tranquilly, and loves and vows
Grow green in your gray shadows, dearer far
Even than all lovely lights and roses are?

1. Third Series. 4. Thin little leaves of wood fern, ribbed and toothed
2. First Series. 5. And so the day drops by, the horizon draws
3. Second Series. 7. His heart was in his garden; but his brain
4. Second Series. 1. That boy, the farmer said, with hazel wand
5. First Series. 8. As when down some broad river dropping, we

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