Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A MIDSUMMER HOUR by WILLIAM SHARP

First Line: THERE COMES NOT THROUGH THE O'ERARCHING CLOUD OF GREEN
Last Line: THE SLOW LAPSE OF THE GRADUAL WAVE IS HEARD.
Subject(s): SILENCE; SUMMER;

There comes not through the o'erarching cloud of green
A harsh, an envious sound to jar the ear:
But vaguely swells a hum, now far, now near,
Where the wild honey-bee beyond the screen
Of beech-leaves haunts the field of flowering bean.
Far, far away the low voice of the weir
Dies into silence. Hush'd now is the clear
Sweet song down-circling from the lark unseen.

Beyond me, where I lie, the shrew-mice run
A-patter where of late the streamlet's tones Made music: on a branch a drowsy
bird
Sways by the webs that midst dry pools are spun --
Yet lives the streamlet still, for o'er flat stones
The slow lapse of the gradual wave is heard.



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