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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


APRIL by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: THE FIRST OF APRIL! YET NOVEMBER'S HAZE
Last Line: IS IT DEAD AUTUMN, OR THE DREAMING SPRING?
Subject(s): APRIL;

The first of April! yet November's haze
Hangs on the wood, and blurs the hill's blue tip:
The light of noon rests wanly on the strip
Of sandy road, recalling leaf-laid ways,
Shades stilled in death, and tender twilight days
Ere Winter lifts the wind-trump to his lip.
No moss is shyly seen a tuft to raise,
Nor under grass a gold-eyed flower to dip;
Nor sound is breathed, but haply the south west
Faint rippling in the brushes of the pine,
Or of the shrunken leaf dry-fluttering.
Compact the village lies, a whitened line
Gathered in smoke. What holds this brooding rest?
Is it dead Autumn, or the dreaming Spring?



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