At the Time of Clear Weather

From the Song-book of John Sway Too, the Limehouse Poet

THOMAS BURKE

IN the agreeable public gardens of Poplar,

The bushes are bright with buds,

For this is the time of Clear Weather.

There blossom the quiet flowers of this country—

The unassuming hawthorn,

The dignified chestnut,

And the girlish laburnum ;

And the mandarin of them all is the rhododendron.

In the untilled field of my heart Many buds are bursting.

There is a little bush of kindliness towards all men; There is a slender tree of forgiveness for all wrongs; There is a humble growth of repentance for past sins; And around the field is a thick hedge of thankfulness. And lo! in the midst of all Stands the tree of a hundred boughs,

Laden with the sweetest Of all buds,

Which are breaking to flower under the sun of a maiden's eyes.