BLOOMING, brooding, balmy May, Tell me what to sing or say To thy praise. I muse in vain— Sonnet, song, and rhyming strain Babble still of meadows green, Sprent with dewy diamonds' sheen; Woods bedight in fresh array Of dancing leaves and flowery spray; Warbling birds and humming bees; Murmuring streams and whispering breeze; Cuckoo calling to his love; Wailing voice of forest dove; Lambs at play on field and lawn; Gorgeous sunset, glorious dawn; Loving youths and lovely maids Wandering in the woodland glades; Children crowned with wilding flowers Roam through scented hawthorn bowers; Apple blossoms rich, that speak Of rival tints on beauty's cheek; Singing gaily o'er the dale, Milkmaid trips with frothing pail, Promise fair of curds and cream For sweet May morn, the townsman's dream. Now, what more to sing or say Know I not, thou charming May, To thy praise—ideas fail— Songs of May are trite and stale, Charming neither heart nor ear, Mount we to a higher sphere. Source of ali that's fair and good— Ah! so little understood— Oft "with brute, unconscious gaze," Man thy fairest works surveys, Wanders through the summer bowers— Hears the music, culls the flowers— Basks in sunshine warm and bright— Charms his ear and feasts his sight With each sweet and beauteous thing— Shall he then refuse to bring Tribute to the Name above, The God of nature, light, and love? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN HYMN OF HEAVENLY BEAUTY by EDMUND SPENSER O MAGNET-SOUTH by WALT WHITMAN TORRISMOND; AN UNFINISHED DRAMA by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES THE LOVER'S VIGIL by WILLIAM ROSE BENET ON THE DEATH OF COMMODORE OLIVER H. PERRY by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |