| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| In the Golden Birch |
| | | Elizabeth Gostwycke Roberts |
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| HOW the leaves sing to the wind! | |
| And the wind with its turbulent voices sweet | |
| Gives back the praise of the leaves, as is meet, | |
| To the soft blue sky, where the cumulous clouds are thinned, | |
| And driven away, like a flock of frightened sheep, | 5 |
| By the wind that waketh and putteth to sleep. | |
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| Here, in the golden birch, | |
| Folded in rapture of golden light, | |
| I taste the joy of the birds in their flight; | |
| And I watch the flickering shadows, that sway and lurch | 10 |
| And flutter, like dancing brownies, over the green, | |
| And the birch is singing wherein I lean. | |
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| From over the purple hills | |
| Comes the wind with its strange sweet song to the land; | |
| And the earth looks bright, as it might when planned | 15 |
| By the Maker, and left unblemished of human ills; | |
| And the river runs, like a child to its mother’s knee, | |
| To the heart of the great unresting sea. | |
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| How perfect the day, and sweet! | |
| Over me, limitless heavens of blue; | 20 |
| Close to me, leaves that the wind sifts through; | |
| And the one sweet song, that the wind and the leaves repeat, | |
| Till the mild, hushed meadows listen, crowned with light, | |
| And the hill-tops own its might! | |
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