| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
| |
| 897. One Saturday |
| | | By Annie Douglas Robinson (“Marian Douglas”) |
| |
| |
| I NEVER had a happier time, | |
| And I am forty-three, | |
| Than one midsummer afternoon, | |
| When it was May with me: | |
| Life’s fragrant May, | 5 |
| And Saturday, | |
| And you came out with me to play; | |
| And up and down the garden walks, | |
| Among the flowering beans, | |
| We proudly walked and tossed our heads | 10 |
| And played that we were queens. | |
| |
| Thrice prudent sovereigns, we made | |
| The diadems we wore, | |
| And fashioned for our royal hands | |
| The sceptres which they bore; | 15 |
| But good Queen Bess | |
| Had surely less | |
| Than we, of proud self-consciousness, | |
| While wreaths of honeysuckle hung | |
| Around your rosy neck, | 20 |
| And tufts of marigold looped up | |
| My gown, a “gingham check.” | |
| |
| Our chosen land was parted out, | |
| Like Israel’s, by lot; | |
| My kingdom, from the garden wall | 25 |
| Reached to the strawberry plot; | |
| The onion-bed, | |
| The beet-tops red, | |
| The corn which waved above my head, | |
| The gooseberry bushes, hung with fruit, | 30 |
| The wandering melon-vine, | |
| The carrots and the cabbages, | |
| All, all of them, were mine! | |
| |
| Beneath the cherry-tree was placed | |
| Your throne, a broken chair; | 35 |
| Your realm was narrower than mine, | |
| But it was twice as fair: | |
| Tall hollyhocks, | |
| And purple phlox, | |
| And time-observing four-o’clocks, | 40 |
| Blue lavender, and candytuft, | |
| And pink and white sweet peas, | |
| Your loyal subjects, waved their heads | |
| In every passing breeze. | |
| |
| Oh! gay and prosperous was our reign | 45 |
| Till we were called to tea;— | |
| But years, since then, have come and gone, | |
| And I am forty-three! | |
| Yet, journeying | |
| On rapid wing, | 50 |
| Time has not brought, and cannot bring, | |
| For you or me, a happier day | |
| Than when, among the beans, | |
| We proudly walked and tossed our heads, | |
| And fancied we were queens. | 55 |
| |
|
|
|
