"Whan That Aprille . . ." / John Dos Passos

"Whan That Aprille. . ."

Is it the song of a meadow lark
Off the brown, sere salt marshes,
Or the eager patches in dooryards
Of yellow and pale lilac crocuses;
Or else the suburban street golden with sunlight,
And the bare branches of elm trees
Twined in the delicate sky?
Or is it the merry piping
Of a distant hurdy-gurdy?—
That makes me so weary and faint with desire
For strange lands and new scents;
For the rough-rhythmed clank
Of train couplings at night,
And the stormy, gay-tinted sunrises
That shade with purple the contours
Of far-off, unfamiliar hills.

~~
John Dos Passos (1896-1970)
from Eight Harvard Poets, 1917

[Poem is in the public domain in the United States]

John Dos Passos biography