Heap high the bowl and pour the cream!
How bright the rosy berries gleam—
Red fruit and Jersey cream upon it,
The colors of my lady’s bonnet.
In hues like these the western sun
Descends to rest when day is done;
And round his flaming couch are rolled
Bright curtained clouds of red and gold.
Not greedily the fruit devour;
Prolong the raptures of the hour;
Stain not with juice your linen fair,
And of the “strawberry nose” beware.
Think of the lovely—the sublime—
Niagara—California’s clime;
The Mammoth Cave—Alaska’s shore,
Where glaciers plunge and billows roar;
Balance each berry in your spoon,
Sink back in a delicious swoon,
And murmur in a Romeo’s sigh:
“I have seen Naples—let me die!”
O, vital sparks of heavenly flame!
Whate’er your lineage, land or name,
Pink buds which Mother Nature clips
From infant cherubs’ finger tips,
Or earth-born babies’ little toes,
Tinted like sea-shell or the rose,
Or notes from songs of home and love,
Which floating to the skies above
Are crystallized in heaven’s pure air
And turn to crimson berries there—
Ambrosial fruit of heavenly birth,
By Ariel’s fingers dropped on earth—
Come o’er me and possess my soul,
Sweet spirit of the Strawberry Bowl!
For all the world’s a strawberry bowl,
Life the red fruit which fills the brim,
The daily papers spoon the whole,
And women are the sugar and cream.
Melrose Garden, May, 1880.
HYMN.
[Sung at the Dedication of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Church, Fairview, Kentucky, November 21, 1886.]
Inscription on a marble tablet in the wall of the church:
Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was born June 3, 1808, on the site of this church. He made a gift of the lot March 10, 1886, to the Bethel Baptist Church, as a thank-offering to the Lord.
Jesus, to thy great name we raise
A house of penitence and praise,
A beacon for the wanderers’ bark,
To guide it home through storm and dark.
Here shall ambition’s fever cease,
Sin’s wretched slaves find sweet release,
And washed in Jordan’s cleansing wave
Rise from the Christian’s mystic grave.
Hence bid our earth-born cares depart,
Heal every aching, bleeding heart,
Dispel the clouds of doubt and dread
And feed us with thy living Bread.
Father, Redeemer, Guide and Friend,
Go with us to our Journey’s end,
Until we hail in Paradise
The nobler Bethel of the skies.