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." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT ON LUCY, COUNTESS OF BEDFORD by BEN JONSON ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 52 by PHILIP SIDNEY GREATER LOVE by ANTIPATER OF SIDON A MODERN SAPPHO by MATTHEW ARNOLD TO DR. AIKIN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |