Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHESTNUT IN MAY, by KATHARINE TYNAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHESTNUT IN MAY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Chestnut builds the loveliest house, the
Last Line: Chestnut builds the loveliest house for wooing and for wedding.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hinkson, Katharine Tynan
Subject(s): Birds; Chestnut Trees; Home; Love; Marriage; May (month); Weddings; Husbands; Wives


CHESTNUT builds the loveliest house, the loveliest house for lovers,
When May brings the swallow home and all the feathered rovers,
Spreads the feast and makes the bed for finches, tits, and plovers,
All in a glory of pale green amid the scented clovers.

Hark the lark, hark the thrush, and see the skimming swallow!
May's the priest in every bush, with honeymoons to follow.
Hear the bridegroom shout "I will" o'er many a hill and hollow,
While the brides lie coy and still in leafage deep or shallow.

Cuckoo calls like John-a-Dreams, like John-a-Dreams still roaming:
Nightingales from dark to day awake the scented gloaming;
Orchards stand in rose and white amid the lilacs blooming;
Brown is on the golden grass and the new hay is coming.

Chestnut lifts the loveliest roof of waving plume and feather;
All within is emerald green and steeped in golden weather,
Dim and soft the little rooms of wool and moss and heather,
When love leads the lovers home and shuts them in together.

Hear, oh, hear, the blackbirds sing, the linnets and the thrushes!
All the dear delights of Spring in liquid trills and gushes;
All the dear delights of Love with pauses and with hushes,
Eden is in every tree, and Heaven in all the bushes.

Chestnut builds the loveliest house, for Love's delight and bedding;
Silken soft the floor and walls and wild the roof-tree spreading;
Lights the candles up for Love, a pearly lustre shedding.
Chestnut builds the loveliest house for wooing and for wedding.





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