{"id":8720,"date":"2018-04-20T08:30:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T08:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kingstonpubliclibrary.org\/newsite\/?p=8720"},"modified":"2018-04-20T08:30:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T08:30:19","slug":"childhood-hours-by-cousin-benja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/2018\/04\/20\/childhood-hours-by-cousin-benja\/","title":{"rendered":"Childhood Hours by Cousin Benja"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Portrait<\/a>
Portrait of Benjamin Mitchell, c. 1860<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Benjamin Mitchell (1827-1865), who wrote as Cousin Benja, is featured in this month’s exhibit. He spent all of his life in Kingston and composed poetry and essays primarily about nature, God, and the spirit. The following poem is included in a collection of his works,\u00a0Poems and Letters<\/em>, compiled by his sister after he died.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Childhood Hours<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, give me back my childhood hours,
\nWhen I was young, and free
\nTo roam among the woodland bowers,
\nBy mountain side and lea!
\nTo chase beneath the noonday sun
\nThe golden butterfly;
\nAnd sail my boat upon the tide,
\nBeneath the sunset sky.<\/p>\n

Oh, give me back my mountain hours,
\nWhen not a care I knew;
\nWith heart as gay as summer flowers,
\nAnd light as evening dew!
\nTo trace along the hidden path,
\nThat winds by rock and stream;
\nAnd pluck the daisy from its bed,
\nAmong the mossy green!<\/p>\n

Oh, give me back my childhood hours,
\nMy schoolmates young and gay;
\nTo roam again in quest of flowers,
\nThe pleasant fields of May!
\nAnd then at noon to sit and chat,
\nBeneath the greenwood tree;
\nAnd eat our bread and butter there,
\nAnd call it “taking tea!”<\/p>\n

Oh, give me back my childhood hours,
\nThe dearest to my heart;
\nWhen I could sit in Nature’s bowers
\nAnd see the day depart.
\nWhen I could view the Queen of Night
\nIn lovely beauty dressed,
\nCasting her silver rays of light,
\nTo make the earth look blest!<\/p>\n

Oh, give me back my childhood hours,
\nWhere memory loves to dwell\u2014
\nToo dear they are to be forgot,
\nI ever loved them well;
\nBut childhood hours, and halcyon scenes,
\nWill ne’er return again;
\nAnd I must learn to leave my boyhood dreams,
\nAnd live like other men!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: Cousin Benja.\u00a0<\/em>Poems and Letters. Plymouth: Memorial and Rock Press, 1866.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Benjamin Mitchell (1827-1865), who wrote as Cousin Benja, is featured in this month’s exhibit. He spent all of his life in Kingston and composed poetry and essays primarily about nature, God, and the spirit. The following poem is included in a collection of his works,\u00a0Poems and Letters, compiled by his sister after he died. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Childhood Hours by Cousin Benja”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293,292],"tags":[296,193],"class_list":["post-8720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lhc","category-pique-of-the-week","tag-people","tag-poems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}