2 poems / Lizette Woodworth Reese

A Rhyme for June

Now marshy pools on the road's edge,
Or creeks that slip 'twixt banks of sedge,
With marigolds be set aflare;
And not a corner south or north,
But there a brier-rose breaks forth,
And bees go droning down the air.

The bramble now begins to blow,
The elder-bush puts on its snow,
And birds be sweet till fall of dew;
And when my love and I go out,
So thick the grass grows all about
In truth, it scarce will let us through.


After the Rain 

Dripping the hollyhocks beneath the wall
     Their fires half quenched, a smouldering red;
A shred of gold upon the grasses tall,
     A butterfly is hanging dead.

A sound of trickling waters, like a tune
     Set to sweet words; a wind that blows
Wet boughs against a saffron sky; all June
     Caught in the breath of one white rose.

~~
Lizette Woodworth Reese (1856-1935)
from A Handful of Lavender, 1891

[Poems are in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Lizette Woordworth Reese biography