A LITTLE while ago The radiant Summer, with her azure eyes And flower-crowned head, had shaken down a snow Of lovely blossoms, fairer than the Spring, Till these bare boughs were white and glittering, And wild, sweet, panting birds stopped here to sing A little while ago. As if a passing cloud Let loose some flakelets from his downy breast, To hide thy bareness in a dazzling shroud, O tree, the blossoms fell! More fair than these Are not foam-flakes that whiten Summer seas, Frail blossoms drifted by a lang'rous breeze As from a passing cloud. Where are these blossoms now? Answer, wild winds and ghostly Winter, king Who reigneth with white beard and ice-bound brow. Alas, alas! poor tree, so gaunt and bare, Sad skies, cold snows, and silence ev'rywhere; Only thy mournful whisper stirs the air, "Where are my blossoms now?" ... A little while ago I knew a young child-heart, as free from care, And pure and perfect as pale fallen snow, Full of sweet dreams—"Spring buds are never dead, And Summer follows fast on Summer's tread; The world is good, and men are true," she said A little while ago. This heart is wiser now. Her dreams are shattered, lightly blown away, Like Summer blossoms from a Summer bough. Like thee, O tree, whose buds with Spring are gone, The heart that lost its dreams with youth's gold dawn In life's pathetic winter-time must mourn: "Where are my blossoms now?" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT APRIL by ANGELINA WELD GRIMKE SONG OF A SECOND APRIL by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY THE HIGH TIDE AT GETTYSBURG [JULY 3, 1863] by WILL HENRY THOMPSON THE ARGONAUTS (ARGONATUICA): MEDEA'S HESITATION by APOLLONIUS RHODIUS URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: DEDICATION TO LADY PENELOPE DYNHAM by WILLIAM BASSE THE WIDOWER by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |