AN OLD VERMONT CELLAR HOLE by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY

To wander near a ruined home
Upon a summer morning,
Informs the mind and charms the eye
But gives the heart a warning;
For Oh! the sense of human change
That such a scene discloses—
The roses 'round the fallen walls
And lilacs 'round the roses.

The hands that built the house were strong,
The builded house was stronger,
The flowers a wifely afterthought
But they have lasted longer;
We wonder in what grass-grown plot
The tenant now reposes,
And she, as well, for whom they grew,
The lilacs and the roses.

Some leaning wrecks of orchard trees
Declare that life was pleasant;
They lived, as we are living now,
Concerned about the present;
However dear, another day
The dearest day deposes,
And aftertime binds up the wounds
With lilacs and with roses.

Here children played about the door
And here delayed the lover,
But now not e'en the portal's site
A stranger may discover;
We hope that no philandering Seth,
No false Uriah or Moses,
Despoiled this home and only left
The lilacs and the roses.

The highway once went winding by,
But long ago was shifted
To follow through the intervale
Whereto "the world" had drifted;
The robins chirp about no more,
A human chapter closes,
With just this fragrant finis piece
Of lilacs set in roses.

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