Apple Blossoms

 

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts
 of men, yet they cannot fathom the work God has done from beginning to end."
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Apple Trees In Full Bloom
Photograph courtesy Wilfried Krecichwost/Getty Images

I sit in the shadow of apple-boughs,

In the fragrant orchard close,

And around me floats the scented air,

With its wave-like tidal flows.


I close my eyes in dreamy bliss,

And call no king my peer;

For is not this the rare, sweet time,

The blossoming time of the year?

I lie on a couch of downy grass,

With delicate blossoms strewn,

And I feel the throb of Nature's heart

Responsive to my own.


Oh, the world is fair, and God is good,

That maketh life so dear;

For is not this the rare, sweet time,

The blossoming of the year?

I can see, through the rifts of the apple-boughs,

The delicate blue of the sky,

And the changing clouds with their marvelous tints

That drift so lazily by.


And the strange, sweet thoughts sing through my brain,

And Heaven, it seemeth near;

Oh, is it not a rare, sweet time,

The blossoming of the year?

"Apple Blossoms"
Horatio Alger Jr.
(1832-1899)
American novelist and poet