Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Anne
By Lizette Woodworth Reese (18561935)Sudbury Meeting-house, 1653.
H
Ablow in Sudbury lane;
When she doth smile, her face is sweet
As blossoms after rain;
With grief I think of my gray hairs,
And wish me young again.
Upon this Sabbath day;
And she doth bring the tender wind
That sings in bush and spray,
And hints of all the apple boughs
That kissed her by the way.
For our dear souls to pray,
And of the place where sinners go
Some grewsome things doth say;
Now she is highest Heaven to me;
So Hell is far away.
To hear the sermon through;
But if our God be such a God,
And if these things be true,
Why did He make her then so fair,
And both her eyes so blue?
And finds her sitting there;
And touches soft her lilac gown,
And soft her yellow hair;
I look across to that old pew,
And have both praise and prayer.
Amid the grasses green,
This maid who stirs ye with her feet
Is far more fair, I ween!
I wonder how my forty years
Look by her sweet sixteen!