At the Time of Clear Weather

By Thomas Burke

In the agreeable public gardens of Poplar

The bushes are bright with buds,

For this is the season of Clear Weather.

There blossom the quiet flowers of this country:

The timid lilac,

The unassuming hawthorn,

The dignified chestnut,

And the girlish laburnum;

And the mandarin of them all is the rhododendron.

In the untilled field of my heart

Many simple buds are bursting.

There is a little bush of kindliness towards all men.

There is a slender tree of forgiveness for all wrongs.

There is a humble growth of repentance for past sins.

And around the field is a thick hedge of thankfulness.

And Ho! in the midst of all

Stands the tree of a hundred boughs

Laden with the sweetest of all buds

Which are breaking to flower under the sun of a maiden's eyes.