"Now, by my faith a gruesome mood, for summer!" -- THOMAS HEYWARD (1597). AH, me! for evermore, for evermore These human hearts of ours must yearn and sigh, While down the dells and up the murmurous shore Nature renews her immortality. The heavens of June stretch calm and bland above, June roses blush with tints of Orient skies, But we, by graves of joy, desire, and love, Mourn in a world which breathes of Paradise! The sunshine mocks the tears it may not dry, The breezes -- tricksy couriers of the air -- Child-roisterers winged, and lightly fluttering by -- Blow their gay trumpets in the face of care; And bolder winds, the deep sky's passionate speech, Woven into rhythmic raptures of desire, Or fugues of mystic victory, sadly reach Our humbled souls, to rack, not raise them higher! The field-birds seem to twit us as they pass With their small blisses, piped so clear and loud; The cricket triumphs o'er us in the grass, And the lark, glancing beamlike up the cloud, Sings us to scorn with his keen rhapsodies; Small things and great unconscious tauntings bring To edge our cares, whilst we, the proud and wise, Envy the insect's joy, the birdling's wing! And thus for evermore, till time shall cease, Man's soul and Nature's -- each a separate sphere -- Revolve, the one in discord, one in peace, And who shall make the solemn mystery clear? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THRENODY FOR A BROWN GIRL by COUNTEE CULLEN LOVE SONGS TO JOANNES by MINA LOY AT A VACATION EXERCISE IN THE COLLEGE by JOHN MILTON SIX O'CLOCK by TRUMBULL STICKNEY THE MORAL FABLES: THE WOLF AND THE WETHER by AESOP A FAIRY TALE by PHILIP JAMES BAILEY CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 5. OF TEMPERANCE by WILLIAM BASSE |