Out at Woodruff Place--afar <br />From the city's glare and jar, <br />With the leafy trees, instead <br />Of the awnings, overhead; <br />With the shadows cool and sweet, <br />For the fever of the street; <br />With the silence, like a prayer, <br />Breathing round us everywhere. <br /> <br />Gracious anchorage, at last, <br />From the billows of the vast <br />Tide of life that comes and goes, <br />Whence and where nobody knows-- <br />Moving, like a skeptic's thought, <br />Out of nowhere into naught. <br />Touch and tame us with thy grace, <br />Placid calm of Woodruff Place! <br /> <br />Weave a wreath of beechen leaves <br />For the brow that throbs and grieves <br />O'er the ledger, bloody-lined, <br />'Neath the sun-struck window-blind! <br />Send the breath of woodland bloom <br />Through the sick man's prison room, <br />Till his old farm-home shall swim <br />Sweet in mind to hearten him! <br /> <br />Out at Woodruff Place the Muse <br />Dips her sandal in the dews, <br />Sacredly as night and dawn <br />Baptize lilied grove and lawn: <br />Woody path, or paven way-- <br />She doth haunt them night and day,-- <br />Sun or moonlight through the trees, <br />To her eyes, are melodies. <br /> <br />Swinging lanterns, twinkling clear <br />Through night-scenes, are songs to her-- <br />Tinted lilts and choiring hues, <br />Blent with children's glad halloos; <br />Then belated lays that fade <br />Into midnight's serenade-- <br />Vine-like words and zithern-strings <br />Twined through ali her slumberings. <br /> <br />Blessed be each hearthstone set <br />Neighboring the violet! <br />Blessed every rooftree prayed <br />Over by the beech's shadel <br />Blessed doorway, opening where <br />We may look on Nature--there <br />Hand to hand and face to face-- <br />Storied realm, or Woodruff Place.<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/june-at-woodruff/
