Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904. | | | | Poems of Home: V. The Home | | “I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled” | | Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | | I KNEW by the smoke that so gracefully curled | |
| Above the green elms, that a cottage was near, | |
| And I said, “If there ’s peace to be found in the world, | |
| A heart that is humble might hope for it here!” | |
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| It was noon, and on flowers that languished around | 5 |
| In silence reposed the voluptuous bee; | |
| Every leaf was at rest, and I heard not a sound | |
| But the woodpecker tapping the hollow beech-tree. | |
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| And “Here in this lone little wood,” I exclaimed, | |
| “With a maid who was lovely to soul and to eye, | 10 |
| Who would blush when I praised her, and weep if I blamed, | |
| How blest could I live, and how calm could I die! | |
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| “By the shade of yon sumach, whose red berry dips | |
| In the gush of the fountain, how sweet to recline, | |
| And to know that I sighed upon innocent lips, | 15 |
| Which had never been sighed on by any but mine!” | | | | |
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