Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MIDSUMMER, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Here! Sweep these foolish leaves away Last Line: In sweeter music dies away. Subject(s): Nature; Summer | ||||||||
HERE! sweep these foolish leaves away, I will not crush my brains to-day! Look! are the southern curtains drawn? Fetch me a fan, and so begone! Not that, -- the palm-tree's rustling leaf Brought from a parching coral-reef! Its breath is heated; -- I would swing The broad gray plumes, -- the eagle's wing. I hate these roses' feverish blood! -- Pluck me a half-blown lily-bud, A long-stemmed lily from the lake, Cold as a coiling water-snake. Rain me sweet odors on the air, And wheel me up my Indian chair, And spread some book not overwise Flat out before my sleepy eyes. Who knows it not -- this dead recoil Of weary fibres stretched with toil, -- The pulse that flutters faint and low When Summer's seething breezes blow! O Nature! bare thy loving breast, And give thy child one hour of rest, -- One little hour to lie unseen Beneath thy scarf of leafy green! So, curtained by a singing pine, Its murmuring voice shall blend with mine, Till, lost in dreams, my faltering lay In sweeter music dies away. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ADVANCE OF SUMMER by MARY KINZIE THE SUMMER IMAGE by LEONIE ADAMS CANOEBIAL BLISS by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY THE END OF SUMMER by HENRY MEADE BLAND THE FARMER'S BOY: SUMMER by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD SONNET: 14. APPROACH OF SUMMER by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES JULY IN WASHINGTON by ROBERT LOWELL ODE TO THE END OF SUMMER by PHYLLIS MCGINLEY A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY [DECEMBER 16, 1773] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
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