Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MAY PARTY, by JAMES OPPENHEIM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MAY PARTY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O million-singing comes the may
Last Line: Had given birth to man!
Subject(s): Central Park, New York City; Music & Musicians; Parks; Parties; Summer


O million-singing comes the May
And whose dumb heart but wakes and thrills?
Now, as of old, the break of-day
Sings through the heart as through the hills—
New spirit and new day are born—
Yea, in our souls great suns arise
With flame more glorious than the morn
Lit with sun-centred skies!

O we have watched the blossoms slip
Through hills of sunniest silent green,
And when at morn the bluebirds drip
Dew on wet logs, our eyes have seen—
Yea, marked the unmowed meadow tremble
Through a million blades of grass new-born—
Yea, heard the birds of song assemble
The beauty of the morn!

But there is one thing I have seen
That shall be held within the heart,
When all that deepens into green
Or blooms in bright blue shall depart—
It was a hill that blossomed rich
With buds of an all-lovelier hue
Than the wild spring-things that bewitch
Each year our souls anew!

Lo, in the park, and up the lawn,
And laughing in the leafiness,
And fresh with all the fragrant dawn,
And dancing in gay gala dress,
Our city children loosed to skies,
A thousand little souls laid bare
To all the gales of Paradise
That wandered through their hair.

O loveliness more absolute
Than bird or bough or beast or bud,
O pure sweet splendors that transmute
May's unsoul'd marvellous full flood
Into a something lit with God!
O gazing where they danced and ran
I knew then why earth's blossoming sod
Had given birth to man!





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