My whole is the name of an authoress, highly popular with both old and young.
[22]
My first, from the frozen North comes down
In snowy mantle dressed;
And the smiling earth grows bare and brown,
Where’er his steps have pressed,
The flowers close up each sparkling eye,
And hide in the earth till he passes by.
But when bleak winds and frosts are gone,
’Mid April’s smiles and tears,
My second’s hue the earth puts on,
And summer beauty wears;
And tuneful birds and opening flowers
Invite you to the forest bowers.
On moss-grown banks, half hidden there,
My whole may oft be seen;
My fragrant leaves perfume the air,
And shine in emerald green;
And there my crimson berry glows,
Ripened beneath New England snows.
[23]
My first.
The boy who, trusting in his father’s word,
Sprang from the towering mast to meet the wave,
Possessed in me the pledge that risk incurred,
Was equaled by that father’s power to save.
My second.