Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN JUNE by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHO SAW THE JUNE COME? WEL-A-DAY!
Last Line: JUNE HAS BEEN HERE BEFORE.
Subject(s): JUNE;

With a difference.
-- Hamlet

WHO saw the June come? Wel-a-day!
My neighbor's bushes, one and all,
And grew white after God's old way,
Behind the garden wall.
Who saw the June come? Nay, not she,
My neighbor's daughter, slim and shy,
Long since she left her father's house,
Ere yet the rose was nigh.
Last year, last year, there in the sun
She stood and smiled. I did not know
Which was the whitest thing in June,
She, or that bush a-grow.
But now; ah, now; yea, now 'tis plain!
When folk be dead, how wise we be!
God's boughs were black beside her snow;
Ah, now; yea, now I see!
My neighbor's bushes blow, blow, blow,
And blow about his silent door!
Ye call that white? Nay, 'tis not so;
June has been here before.
Ye cannot mock me, blossoms sweet;
I know too well your looks of yore;
My neighbor knows (yet blow, blow, blow),
June has been here before.




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