Oft on the gleaming April days, When skies are soft, and winds are warm, And in the air a subtle charm, And on the hill a flight of rays; When silver clouds slide through the blue, Spreading a pure, transparent wing, And all the budding branches ring With blithesome birds, that warbling woo; Beneath a pear tree's shade I lay, Deep bedded in the long thick grass, And heard the twitt'ring swallow pass, And grasshoppers at endless play. I knew, though flowers mine eyes did screen, That butterflies danced in the light; For, breaking sunbeams in their flight, They flashed their shadows on the green. And gazing up, in dreamful ease, Where quiv'ring frail on shivery sprays, The blossoms mix a milky maze, What hum of golden-girted bees! So lily-white, the tree, behold, Seems set on fire by burnished lights, And shoal on honeying shoal alights, And turns the snowy boughs to gold. Thus on my spirit -- music-fraught, Burst swarms of glimm'ring melodies, And like the yellow-banded bees, Make honey of my flutt'ring thought. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WITH AN ALBUM by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR UNDER THE SHADE OF THE TREES [MAY 10, 1863] by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON STEAMBOATS, VIADUCTS, AND RAILWAYS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH CAPITAL SQUARE by PATRICK JOHN MCALISTER ANDERSON THE LEAF by ANTOINE VINCENT ARNAULT ON SENDING MY SON AS A PRESENT TO DR. SWIFT by MARY BARBER TWELVE SONNETS: 9. WEARINESS by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |