While I was home this past July, my Aunt Gwendolyn Connally told me of a poem my father loved dearly. She could only remember one verse, but I went online with that and found it. Three cheers for the Internet! And here it is:
When I was a boy on the old plantation,
Down by the deep bayou,
The fairest spot of all creation,
Under the arching blue;
When the wind came over the cotton and corn,
To the long slim loop I'd spring
With brown feet bare, and a hat brim torn,
And swing in the grapvine swing.
Swinging in the grapevine swing,
Laughing where the wild birds sing,
I dream and sigh
For the days gone by,
Swinging in the grapevine swing!
Out - o'er the water-lilies bonnie and bright,
Back - to the moss-grown tree;
I shouted and laughed with a heart as light
As a wild rose tossed by the breeze.
The mocking-bird joined in my reckless glee,
I longed for no angel's wing -
I was just as near heaven as I wanted to be,
Swinging in the grapevine swing.
Swinging in the grapevine swing,
Laughing where the wild birds sing,
O to be a boy
With a heart full of joy,
Swinging in the grapevine swing!
From Rings and Love Knots, copyright 1892 by Frederick A. Stokes Company
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