Truly Lovely

LURIANA LURILEE
by Charles Elton (1839-1900)

Come out and climb the Garden path 
  Luriana, Lurilee.
The China rose is all abloom
And buzzing with the yellow bee.
We'll swing you on the cedar bough,
  Luriana, Lurilee.

I wonder if it seems to you,
  Luriana, Lurilee,
That all the lives we ever lived 
And all the lives to be,
are full of trees and changing leaves,
  Luriana, Lurilee.

How long it seems since you and I,
  Luriana, Lurilee,
Roamed in the forest where our kind
Had just begun to be,
And laughed and chattered in the flowers,
  Luriana, Lurilee.

How long since you and I went out,
  Luriana,Lurilee,
To see the Kings go riding by
Over lawn and daisy lea,
With their palm leaves and cedar sheaves,
  Luriana, Lurilee.

Swing, swing, swing on a bough,
  Luriana, Lurilee,
Till you sleep in a humble heap
Or under a gloomy churchyard tree,
And then fly back to swing on a bough,
  Luriana, Lurilee.

(Quoted in To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf)