In Florida

In Florida to-day, the roses blow,
And breath of orange blossoms fills the air,
In blooming thickets, by a brook I know,
The mocking-bird is pouring forth his rare,
Rich song, thrilling the charmed listener’s heart.
In deeper woods the fair pink lily grows;
Pale as the wind-flower she droops apart,
Or, glowing with the blushes of the rose,
From the dark pool she lifts her lovely head, —
A radiant presence ‘mid the woodland gloom, —
While, smiling on her from their mossy bed,
Sweet purple violets in beauty bloom
Mid their dark shining leaves magnolias gleam,
White as the snows that o’er our fields extend;
And oleander-trees, beside a stream,
O’erladen with their rosy blossoms bend.
O’er hedge, and bank, and bush the jasmine flings
Its graceful golden leaves with a lavish hand;
To boughs of ancient oaks the grey moss clings,
Its long, weird tresses by the soft breeze fanned.
How sweet to linger in the shaded bowers;
How sweet to catch gleams of the blue, blue sky;
To dream away the softly-gliding hours,
As on the fragrant, flower-sown earth we lie!
Alas, it may not be; Our lot is cast
In bleaker climes, ‘neath duller skies we stray, —
Still haunted by bright visions of the Past; —
Sweet, sweet to be in Florida to-day!