Classic Poem

ON RECEIVING A BOUQUET OF PEONIES .

Thanks, thanks, dear friend, for your present,
For these peonies three;
This mass of milky petals,
And your kindly thoughts of me.

I thank you for the memories
They bring to me to-night,
These flowers beautiful and perfect, —
These flowers of purest white.

They bring me a breath of country air.
They whisper of prattling rills,
Of purple skies with sunlit clouds,
Of wooded, templed hills.

They take me back to my childhood days,
Days past, long years ago,
To a shady, country door-yard
Where they were wont to blow.

Then accept my thanks again dear friend,
For these peonies three,
This mass of milky petals,
And your kindly thoughts of me.