Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MAY, by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: May, thou month of rosy beauty Last Line: And find us in the fields together. Alternate Author Name(s): Hunt, Leigh Subject(s): Holidays; Trees | ||||||||
MAY, thou month of rosy beauty, Month when pleasure is a duty; Month of maids that milk the kine, Bosom rich, and health divine; Month of bees and month of flowers, Month of blossom-laden bowers: Month of little hands with daisies, Lovers' love, and poets' praises; O thou merry month complete, May, the very name is sweet! May was MAID in olden times, And is still in Scottish rhymes May's the month that's laughing now. I no sooner write the word, Than it seems as though it heard, And looks up and laughs at me, Like a sweet face, rosily, Flushing from the paper's white; Like a bride that knows her power, Startled in a summer bower. If the rains that do us wrong Come to keep the winter long And deny us thy sweet looks, I can love thee, sweet, in books, Love thee in the poets' pages, Where they keep thee green for ages; Love and read thee as a lover Reads his lady's letters over, Breathing blessings on the art Which commingles those that part. There is May in books forever: May will part from Spencer never; May's in Milton, May's in Prior, May's in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer; May's in all the Italian books; She has old and modern nooks, Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves In happy places they call shelves, And will rise and dress your rooms With a drapery thick with blooms. Come, ye rains, then, if ye will, May's at home and with me still; But come rather, thou good weather, And find us in the fields together. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PROBLEM OF DESCRIBING TREES by ROBERT HASS THE GREEN CHRIST by ANDREW HUDGINS MIDNIGHT EDEN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN REFLECTION OF THE WOOD by LEONIE ADAMS THE LIFE OF TREES by DORIANNE LAUX ABOU BEN ADHEM by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT |
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