Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SCHERZO, by MATHILDE BLIND Poet's Biography First Line: Oh, beloved, come and bring Last Line: In the blossom of your face. Alternate Author Name(s): Lake, Claude Subject(s): Spring | ||||||||
OH, beloved, come and bring All the flowery wealth of spring! Though the leaf be in the sere, Icy winter creeping near; Though the trees like mourners all Standing at a funeral, Black against the pallid air Toss their wild arms in despair, With their bald heads sadly bowed O'er dead summer in her shroud. Yea, though golden days be o'er, If you enter at my door, Spring, dear spring, will come once more. There will break upon the night That glad flash of dewy light Which, like young love in a pet, Once with sunny tears would wet Many a wild-wood violet; And the hyacinth will arise In the April of your eyes. Blossoms of the apple tree? Rarer blossoms bloom for me In the cunning white and red, Most felicitously wed, On your cheek. And then your brow-- Can a snow-white cherry-bough Match its bland, unsullied hue, Where, like threads of silky blue, Little veins show here and there Through broad temples where your hair, Clustering, hangs a tender brown Softer than the fluffy down Which before the leaf in March Beards the lime tree and the larch? Shall I grieve because the rose, The red rose, no longer blows, Since all roses you eclipse With the roses of your lips? And what matter, O my sweet, Though the genial light and heat Have departed for a while! Only let me see you smile, Let me see that dulcet curve Like a dimpling wavelet swerve Round the coral of your mouth, And the North will change to South: To the happy South, whose clear Light o'er-brimming atmosphere, Flowing in at every pore, Sets life glowing to the core. You are light and life in sooth, Fair as was that Grecian youth Who in her cold sphere above Drove poor Dian mad with love-- When she saw him where he lay, White and golden like a spray Of tall jonquils whose intense Sweetness faints upon the sense; When she saw him swathed in light, Couched on the a๋rial height Of hoar Latmos, hushed and warm; While, to shield him from all harm, Like a woman's rounded arm, A fresh creeper wildly fair Twined around his throat and hair. And the goddess clean forgot Her fair fame without a blot, And untarnished reputation, Free from faintest imputation Of such frailties as the fair Dwellers in Elysian air Find recorded to their shame, Chronicled with date and name, In the annals of the skies. She forgot in her surprise, When her empyrean eyes Saw Endymion where he lay Slumbering, and she cast away Her immortal honour, clear As her own unclouded sphere, For the palpitating bliss Of a surreptitious kiss. Oh, beloved, come and bring All the flowery wealth of spring-- All its blossoms, buds, and bells, And wind-coaxing violet smells-- All its miracle of grace In the blossom of your face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPRING LEMONADE by TONY HOAGLAND A SPRING SONG by LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN SPRING'S RETURN by GEORGE LAWRENCE ANDREWS ODE TO SPRING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD ODE TO SPRING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD SPRING FLOODS by MAURICE BARING SPRING IN WINTER by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES SPRING ON THE PRAIRIE by HERBERT BATES THE FARMER'S BOY: SPRING by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD |
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