Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SONG OF APPLE-BLOOM, by GORDON BOTTOMLEY


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A SONG OF APPLE-BLOOM, by             Poet's Biography
First Line: Have you not waked in the grey of the day-dawn
Last Line: "come, lasses, come, ere our rose-world falls grey."
Subject(s): Apples; Fruit


HAVE you not waked in the grey of the day-dawn
Whitely to stand at the window scarce-seen,
Over the garden to peer in the May-dawn
Past to the fruit-close whose pale boughs not green
Slowly reveal a fresh faintness a-flutter
White to the young grass and flushed to the sky?
O, then a low call to waking we utter
"Bloom, lasses, apple-bloom spurts low and high.

"Out, lasses, out, to the apple-garth hasten --
Nay, never tarry to net your glad hair:
Here are no lovers your shoe-clasps to fasten --
This is an hour when girls' feet may go bare.
Over the dim lawn the May rime yet lingers,
Pallid and dark as the down of the dawn --
Gather your skirts in your delicate fingers,
Stoop as you run o'er the flowerless lawn.

"Look through the trees ere dawn's twilight is over --
Lo, how the light boughs reach up to the stars;
Everywhere bloom seems the grey sky to cover,
Too cold to have scent though no rain-rust yet mars.
Wet are the flowerets to wash your faint faces --
Bury your faces cheek-deep in their chill;
Press the thick petals and open your dresses --
So -- let them trickle your young breasts to thrill.

"Winter has wronged us of sunlight and sweetness,
We who so soon must be hid from the sun;
Winter is on us as Summer's completeness
Faint-hearted drops down a tired world undone;
Brief is the bloom-time as sleepy maids' laughter
Who know not one bedtime 'tis Summer's last day,
Though from the heart of the rose they have quaffed her;
Come, lasses, come, ere our rose-world falls grey."





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