When swallows circled near the barn
And peacocks called their false forlorn;
When over at the dusky row
Was heard the darkies’ jamboree,
In weird and unchecked rhapsody;
Far down the milky way would bow—
’Twas night and full of witchery
In boyhood days to me.
I’m thinking of sweet Shenandoah
And days before the Civil Strife—