I

O H ! the trail that leads to White Top in the merry month of May,
What a galaxy of beauty we shall find upon the way.
There the haughty hemlock's shade is
Bending o'er the quaker ladies
In the gorge as deep as Hades where the lady slippers stray!

II

Would you climb the dappled pathway toward the misty mountain height
You must balance on your saddle, right to left, and left to right —
For the branches stoop and press you
As a lover would caress you,
Begging only you confess you greet their ardor with delight.

III

There the painted trillium glances from her trinity of leaves,
And her sister, the Wake-Robin, nods serenely and believes
That perchance her singing brother
On some rapid flight or other
Brushed her petals with a feather where the burnished crimson heaves.

IV

Near the rocks the wild azalea, flaring in an orange flame,
Leans above the mandrake blossom, hiding 'neath her leaf in shame —
And Clintonia Umbellata
Gleams beside the laughing water
Like a monarch's royal daughter who disdains a common name!

V

As we climb we see Elk Garden, with its broad and grassy sweep,
And the crown of black old Balsam casting shadows long and deep,
But we mount forever higher
Where the wind plays like a lyre,
And the sunset's sudden fire falls on summits wild and steep.

VI

Here the delicate Spring beauty clambers up the mountain side,
And the wind flower swaying gently, pristine as a pallid bride,
White Top's children shyly peeping
From the undergrowth where creeping
Pine and fir their tryst are keeping, though we crush them as we ride.

VII

Now we scale the final hillock, and before our wondering eyes
Range on range of mountains rising from the valley to the skies,
Far unto the dim horizon —
Peak on peak the faint flush lies on,
And the young moon's shadow dies on myriad purple mysteries.

VIII

Oh! the trail that leads to White Top — When the days are cold and gray,
And the winter nights are chilly, how I long to wend my way
Back to Springtime and its glory,
There where Life's an untold story
On the trail to White Top hoary in the merry month of May!