Friday, June 24, 2011

Summer of Love / Joyce Kilmer


Summer of Love

June lavishes sweet-scented loveliness
And sprinkles sunfilled wine on everything;
The very leaves grow drunk with bliss and sing
And every breeze becomes a soft caress.
All earthly things felicity confess
And fairies dance in many a moonlit ring;
The fleetfoot hours fresh wealth of joyaunce bring;
Life wears her gayest rose-embroidered dress.

Kind June, why bear these golden gifts to me?
All winter long I hear the throstle's tune,
All winter long red roses I can see,
Reading the while Love's ancient magic rune.
In Love's fair garden-close I wander free,
So take your guerdon elsewhere, lovely June.

---
Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
from Summer of Love, 1911

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Joyce Kilmer biography

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