The awful shadow of some unseen Power
Floats through unseen among us, -- visiting
This various world with as inconstant wing
As summer winds that creep from flower to flower, --
Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower,
It visits with inconstant glance
Each human heart and countenance;
Like hues and harmonies of evening, --
Like clouds in starlight widely spread, --
Like memory of music fled, --
......
When I was a windy boy and a bit
And the black spit of the chapel fold,
(Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women),
I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood,
The rude owl cried like a tell-tale tit,
I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled
Nine-pin down on donkey's common,
And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed
Whoever I would with my wicked eyes,
The whole of the moon I could love and leave
......
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
......
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thy happiness,---
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
......
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.
......
Beneath the rays of the unmerciful sun
July sang its old drowsy tune,
Even the birds made no move to shun,
As they stood mesmerized by the croon.
In that hush of a golden disc,
I surrendered to stillness of grove;
Only thoughts were not silent and brisk,
Aching bitterly, longing to prove
......
From obscurity come the strangers
Fading away, like old dangers.
Walking the street of flowers
more people pass every hour
A few are pleasantry exchangers.
Near my porch, robin sings
Beautiful music for summer swing!
Red berries in a bowl
Kelly green butterfles, on patrol
......
Where the children go to play
Is where the summer grass endures
And sunbeams - like a cascade -
Pour down upon their bronze shoulders.
This - the children have learned well:
Butterflies don't really flutter -
Instead - they dance a sky waltz
To the cicadas' fond clamor.
......
In hues orange, pink, red, teal and purple,
the sunset skies look quite unique tonight,
to laud this hour of summer eternal-
pretty as the purple martins in flight!
Each hour's new, though they go in a circle;
And I'm thrilled fate put me here for this sight.
Early, eager moon, remembers cream clouds,
Coming to soon fade, like the floral crowds.
Listen to the raging summer rain
Mercilessly battering the ground -
Drops bouncing like crickets all around.
What heights its descent has drained
Into the pools when it came unbound!
My head is made silent by the sound
And a sense of cleanliness will remain
After everything's been washed down
And the neighborhood streets have drowned.
Harder still it strikes the window pane -
......