Classic Poem

J. S.

To-day as I sit by my window
With an unread book in my hand,
My hollyhocks close by the lattice
Are beautiful and grand.

I think of an old-time garden,
No other flowers were there,
Except the hollyhocks growing
Without tending, thought or care.

They were masses of bloom in summer,
So beautiful and so high,
And swayed and nodded coyly
To all the passers-by.

The house that stood in that garden —
Its keeper is dead and gone! —
But around it still in summer time
The hollyhocks bloom on.