Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN MAPLE VALLEY, by WALTER COOPER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN MAPLE VALLEY, by                    
First Line: Well I remember still
Last Line: And in it may I make one last endeavor.
Subject(s): Nature


Well I remember still
The lichen-covered mill,
Close by the foaming dam in Maple Valley;
And grandpa, years ago,
With hair as white as snow,
And grandma, whom the children called Aunt Sally.

The south wind sighs and moans
Among the hemlock cones,
Which keep the mill within their cooling shadow;
And laden with their scent,
Goes on its way intent
To kiss the violets in the distant meadow.

The robin sings his hymns
Among the maple's limbs,
Down on the lawn near where the swift brook rushes;
And up among the hills
The rippling music thrills
From out the throats of many warbling thrushes.

Black Nance, with sounding shell,
In lieu of dinner bell,
Breathes forth a blast plain heard by many a neighbor;
And from the distant field,
Whose fertile furrows yield
The golden corn, come home the sons of labor.

I close my eyes and see
A grapevine-covered tree,
Where in the sunny autumn days I'd linger,
The juicy globes to drain,
Which left their purple stain
In telltale marks on lip and face and finger.

How sweet the apples were!
And when the chestnut burr
Broke open with the frosts, its store disclosing,
The squirrels, wild with joy,
Disputed with the boy
His right of thus his winter food disposing.

How long ago it seems!
Yet often in my dreams
Around those haunts how lovingly I hover,
And sigh, with suppressed pain,
When I awake again,
And know that youth and all its dreams are over.

Could I but be again
A boy, as I was then,
And all the past be blotted out forever --
But vain is all regret;
The future is mine yet,
And in it may I make one last endeavor.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net