Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ Their garden filled with fruits, and herbs, and flowers;
And in the winter there was no fireside
So cheerful as their own. But other days
And other fortunes came—an evil power!
They bore against it cheerfully, and hoped
For better times, but ruin came at last;
And the old soldier left his own dear home,
And left it for a prison. ’Twas in June,
One of June’s brightest days—the bee, the bird,
The butterfly, were on their brightest wings;
The fruits had their first tinge of summer light ”

“ Rome’s wail above her only son—
Her patriot—and her latest one.⁠⁠ L. E. L.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”