Aster "Daybreak"
THE WINTER WOODS
How patiently they wait—the bare brown trees
Through winter's sullen gloom,
With arms outspread as if in suppliance
Of vanished leaf and bloom!
Till Nature's voice shall sound its clarion call
Waking the earth from sleep,
These monarchs shorn of all their treasure stand
In silence long and deep.
O learn a lesson from the winter woods!
Hope on O troubled heart!
In patience wait! The blessing thou dost need
God will at last impart!
Alice Jean Cleator, Ohio.
THE LIVE OAK
(In the South)
On the gray outside of the year
Fluttered its leaves of cheer;
They reached to my winter window
And I thought that spring was here.
They reached out mistily
When dawn was on the tree,
But through the rainy mornings
How bright they gleamed and clear.
When other trees are bare
Oak banners glad the air,
And through the Southern summer
Its branches great and fair.
In all their splendid strength,
To all their living length,
Emparadise in shadow
The meadows everywhere.
Ethelwyn Witherald, Canada.
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