Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Duncan Campbell Scott 18621947Above St. Irénée
Scott-DuI
In cooler shade and clearer air,
Beneath a maple tree;
Below, the mighty river took
Its sparkling shade and sheeny light
Down to the sombre sea,
And clustered by the leaping brook
The roofs of white St. Irénée.
Broke down upon the silver tide,
The river ran in streams,
In streams of mingled azure-gray
With here a broken purple band,
And whorls of drab, and beams
Of shattered silver light astray,
Where far away the south shore gleams.
Between the flowers upon the road,
Asters and golden-rod;
And in the gardens pinks and stocks,
And gaudy poppies shaking light,
And daisies blooming near the sod,
And lowly pansies set in flocks
With purple monkshood overawed.
Between the tossing golden-rod,
Coming along to me;
She was a tender little thing,
So fragile-sweet, so Mary-mild,
I thought her name Marie;
No other name methought could cling
To any one so fair as she.
I spoke a simple word to her,
“Where are you going, Marie?”
She answered and she did not smile,
But oh, her voice,—her voice so sweet,
“Down to St. Irénée,”
And so passed on to walk her mile,
And left the lonely road to me.