Feda with Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Nothing on earth like a noon of June!
In a quiet place with the heart in tune
Just to lie while the hours run
Watching and silent and drunk with sun!
Where you will so where flowers are,
And the noise of men and the whirl are far,
Just to listen and feel at rest
As here I lie on the earth's warm breast:
To look at the marvel of life that stirs
Where the meadow meets with the last great firs
At the dark wood's margin, and then to list
To the voice of Nature the optimist;
While the birds and butterflies come and go,
And the best for them is the way they know,
And the grasses whisper, how well to be
On the meadows breast with the sun to see,
And the tree-arms wave and the lowliest one
Unenvied lifts for its share of sun.
And I heard of the brown bee, heather and thyme
Are more than the rose of the Paradise clime,

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And the little larks, the mid-sky elves,
Said, how the poor world folk fret themselves,
While the mead in dew and the morning sky
Were made for singing, and so sing I.

Then wakes on a sudden the even-wind
From its noon-day drowse in the trees behind,
Whispering “hush,” as it rustles through;
And the grasshoppers have a deal to do,
The beetle booms by the hedge-row way,
So busy at eve for his sleep all day,
The moth awakes, with “it's time for me,”
And drops like a down from the willow-tree,
The daisies close in the knee-deep hay,
And the sun-blind bats come out to play,
The twilight air has a scent of dew,
Shadows deepen and stars ensue.

This is the help when the love-springs dry
For the weary heart and the world-scared eye,
When the ranges narrow and hope is tired,
And the skies are dark for the vain-desired,

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To turn again to the quiet way,
To pause and listen and learn to say,
We had sought amiss for the test of truth,
The joy is here and the ageless youth,
The cloud dispelled and the hope renewed,
The trust, the power, the certitude.