Classic Poem

Would you know how Love first came
And through an apple shot its aim?
For 'tis agreed one never knows
Where and where the spirit blows;
Now I'll answer to my name
And tell you how my love first came,
The fault of an old apple tree.

My uncle had a garden fair
A daughter too of beauty rare;
And in the garden was a spring.
Flowing softly, slow and clear
As stolen waters, hidden wines
In this paradise which shines, —
A daughter too of beauty rare.

There hidden nooks for quiet ease
Bowered with fruit and stately trees
In the brilliant summer time,
Are fresh with flowers, brimmed with song;
Shafts of light and shadows throng
In hidden nooks for quiet ease
Bowered with fruit and stately trees.

It fell on a midsummer day,
Hot the noontide, bright and gay,
I came into the garden, sporting
With my cousin Pearl, and courting,
She a tender maid and I
A yearless youth, come out to play
All the livelong summer day.

The bowers enrobed in foliage bright
And sunshine rays of joy and light
Conceal a laden apple tree;
Clustered cherries there are shining
With blushing berries all entwining,
In shade of bushes, foliage bright
Where sunshine rays of joy alight.

Voices answer, voices twitter
Twixt the leaves on wings of song,
Chorus of a babbling twitter
In my heart new measures beat,
Moving chants awake and sweet,
Voices answer, voices twitter
Winged songsters round us flitter.

There we laughed and danced in glee —
Pearl is very near to me —
Full of mirth, like children singing;
Those born for song and fruits divine
Mingled in this joy of mine,
As we laughed and danced in glee,
For Pearl is very near to me.

She dubbed me the devil's filly,
A called her a little bird,
Or compared her to a lily —
I can't recall — it's quite absurd!
How lovely at that hour was Pearl
When she dubbed me the devil's filly
And I called her a little bird.

All at once a tree we find,
Apples giving savour sweet;
Swift and lightly as a hind
My dove has glided from my hands
And lifting hers, she strikes and lands
A branch of apples at our feet,
Sending forth its savour sweet.

Back in a moment, holding fast
A brilliant apple big and red;
She tasted it and then she fed
Me with her hand from t'other half;
I oped my mouth wide, not to laugh,
Whilst she stood by me, holding tight
The slice of apple, red and bright.

And where the apple white was seen
My teeth were set where hers had been;
I scented then the charm of Pearl —
Perfumed elixir, souls to sate;
As if drunk with sweetest wine
The spirit melts, the heart is strait;
From then my Pearl was Pearl of mine.