Voices from the Past: M.D. Brine

We are waxing poetic here at Fishing for History. Here is a nice one from an 1880s Harper's Weekly.


Fishing--May and I
by M.D. Brine
Beneath the quivering arch of leaves
Where sunlight flickered through,
While birds sang merry songs of love,
Each to its mate so true,
Where just below the mossy bank
The laughing stream flowed by,
We came, with fishing line and rod,
My blue-eyed May and I.

Oh, how her merry laugh rang out,
Startling the birds above!
And I forgot the shining fish
While whispering words of love.
And how the sunlight, falling through
The tangled web of green,
Came trembling down to crown her head—
My blue-eyed May, my queen!

Ah! years have passed since then, and she
Hath with them passed away;
But nature smiles no whit the less
For troubled hearts each day!
The leaves, the birds, the bank, the brook,
Their missions still fulfill;
But memory only cheers my heart,
And keeps me happy still.

-- Dr. Todd