Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Robert LouisMunger

1720 God’s Will

I KNOW, I know where violets blow

Upon a sweet hillside,

And very bashfully they grow

And in the grasses hide—

It is the fairest field, I trow,

In the whole world wide.

One spring I saw two lassies go,

Brown cheek and laughing eye;

They swung their aprons to and fro,

They filled them very high

With violets—then whispered low

So strange, I wondered why.

I know where violet tendrils creep

And crumbled tombstones lie,

The green churchyard is silence-deep;

The village folk go by,

And lassies laugh and women weep,

And God knows why.