June / Guy Wetmore Carryl

June

Lightsome, laughter-loving June,
          Days that swoon
     In beds of flowers;
Twilights dipped in rose perfume,
          Nights of gloom
     Washed clear by showers.
Suns that softly sink to rest
          In the west,
     All purple barred;
And a faint night-wind that sighs
          Under skies
     Still, silver-starred.
Languorous breaths of meadow land
          Overspanned
     By clouds like snow;
And a shouting from the brooks,
          Where in nooks
     Late violets grow.
June, ah, June, to lie and dream
          By the stream,
     And in the maze
Of thy spells never to heed
          How they speed,
     Thy witching days;
Watching where the shadows pass,
          And the grass
     All rustling bends,
While the bees fly east and west,
          On a quest
     That never ends.
Thus to shun the whirl of life,
          Freed from strife
     And freed from care
Hear, as when a lad I heard
          How the bird
     Sings, high in air.
June, to hear beneath the skies
          Lullabies
     That night airs blow;
Ah, to find upon thy breast
          That pure rest
     I used to know!

~~
Guy Wetmore Carryl (1873-1904), 1895
from The Garden of Years, and other poems, 1904

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Guy Wetmore Carryl biography