Ella Stevens Harris

Name: Brown leaves and other verses
Author: Ella Stevens Harris

Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

Summary

“Brown leaves and other verses”, published in 1912, is a work by Ella Stevens Harris. It explores elements such as springtime, spring sunshine and blossoms.

Quotes from Brown leaves and other verses (Ella Stevens Harris)

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ And beneath it, in silence, the patient earth lies.
The moaning and rustling of dead leaves is past—
The comforter came, they are sheltered at last.
O, brown leaves of autumn! ’Tis a wise hand that leads,
And he sends what is best, who best knoweth our needs.
He gives and he takes, and in taking he gives:
From life cometh death, and in dying we live.
From mists of the river, the brooklet and sea
This beautiful shroud has been woven, and ye
Of its coming wist not, for from out the still air
It as silently fell as an answer to prayer. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ Doubtless, as the springtime sun streams faintly into the cell of many a criminal, memory is quickened to life by its soft rays, and flowers of tenderness which have long slumbered bloom again, in the garden of his heart. Perhaps he may remember days all sunshine, days of loving—when a dear face and the light of glad eyes transfigured everything into a world of glory. But temptation, like sorrow, overtakes us when we are least prepared, and on the stream of life we either drift with its current, or with strength of will and determined purpose, pull our fragile bark against it. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ Red’ning in the Spring
Each maple tree reveals that wondrous care
Which never slumbers. Throbbed our human hearts
In harmony with Nature’s, should we feel
It less, when dead leaves rustle ’neath our feet,
And winds of Autumn sing funereal dirge?
Why do men question of a future life?
The tiniest grass blades, springing from the sod,
Are bridges, whereupon with trusting feet
I can in safety cross the stream of doubt—
Wing of bird and cloud which floats above me,
Pebble and sea shell which the tide brings in,
Op’ning bud and tinted leaf of autumn,
Ye all are messengers unto my soul. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ And I wonder, too, if we are not ourselves to blame, if in the pleasant walks of life we gather not enough of sunshine up to last through cloudy weather? And yet, we must dream our own dreams and live our own lives.
The hearts of little children drink in the spring sunshine as freely, even, as the birds and flowers. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ And as the clouds shed dewdrops on the flowers,
Or violets breathe their fragrance on the air,
E’en so thy poems, on our common lives,
Shed sweet refreshment, and we love thy name.
Surely “There is no death!” Such souls as thine
Make all life seem immortal. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ How silently she moves among us, and yet our finer ear may hear her in the springing grass and opening blossoms. We feel her magic touch in everything about us. She whispers, and the slumbering earth awakes to new life and beauty. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ Truth unto me when hot-house-cultured fail,
And yet, however reared, no bud could ope
But felt the Awakener’s touch of magic.{12}
This do they teach. The same warm rays of sun
Fall on the nettle-plant, as fall upon
The sweet briar-rose, and the rain-laden cloud
Passes not by the meanest weed that grows.
And do not wayside flowers invite alike
The rich and humble? To possess is more
Than ownership. Who takes from harvest-field
Food for the inner life may richer be
Than he who fills his granary to the brim. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ The aged couple number over and over again the many springtimes their lives have known in light and shadow. They drink not in the full sunshine of these delicious days, for their nest and nestlings are all gone, and they are waiting for a more glorious springtime yet to come—waiting for eternal sunshine and perpetual blossoms. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ella Stevens Harris, Brown leaves and other verses (1912)

“ And are not their voices sweeter than the song of birds and their lives dearer than all the blossoms?
A maiden sits and dreams, and in her fancy she weaves the golden meshes of a nest that will one day be her own, and if her morning and evening carol shall be sweeter than the bird’s it is not strange, for is not her nest dearer and her love deeper?
In the spring sunshine a mother muses, and her thoughts have flown backward. She sits ’mid blasted buds and voiceless birds, in a springtime of long ago ”

Ella Stevens Harris

Summary

Quotes from Brown leaves and other verses (Ella Stevens Harris)

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