T HERE'S a rhododendron thicket
Where the Laurel River flows,
Shining leaf and gleaming blossom,
Pearly white and radiant rose,
Shading deep, and ever deeper
Where the richer purple glows.

June is waning on the mountain,
And the kalmia's petals fall,
But the rhododendron thicket
Rises like a glistening wall—
Twining, blinding all our pathway
Under hemlocks straight and tall.

As the sun sinks over Round Top,
All the glittering bud and bloom
Seem to vanish in the shadow
Of the valley's sudden gloom—
Winds amid the pines primeval
Shiver with the summer's doom!