| Augustin S. Macdonald, comp. A Collection of Verse by California Poets. 1914. | | | | Christmas in California (excerpt) | | By Edward Rowland Sill |
| | | CAN this be Christmas—sweet as May, | |
| With drowsy sun, and dreamy air, | |
| And new grass pointing out the way | |
| For flowers to follow, everywhere? | |
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| Has time grown sleepy at his post, | 5 |
| And let the exiled Summer back, | |
| Or is it her regretful ghost, | |
| Or witchcraft of the almanac? . . . . . . | |
| Before me, on the wide, warm bay, | |
| A million azure ripples run; | 10 |
| Round me the sprouting palm-shoots lay | |
| Their shining lances to the sun. | |
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| With glossy leaves that poise or swing, | |
| The callas their white cups unfold, | |
| And faintest chimes of odor ring | 15 |
| From silver bells with tongues of gold. | |
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| A languor of deliciousness | |
| Fills all the sea-enchanted clime; | |
| And in the blue heavens meet, and kiss, | |
| The loitering clouds of summer-time. | 20 | | | |
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