The hours of light grow longer,
Briefer the hours of dusk,
In marshes soon will open
The green leaves of the musk.
The frog in cool wet hollows
His notes will murmur long,
The thrush thro’ leafing branches
Will pour his golden song.
The grass will spring and freshen
The hillside as of old,
And all the fields will yellow
With dandelion’s gold.
Yea, all the earth’s rich places
To sweet new joys will start;
But oh, the bleak and barren
Waste places of the heart!
“Remembrance” as it appears in Higginson’s The Voice of April-Land (1903).
A draft of “Remembrance,” courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.