| |
| WITH a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams | |
| The full world rolls in a rhythm of praise, | |
| And the winds are one with the clouds and beams— | |
| Midsummer days! midsummer days! | |
| The dusk grows vast; in a purple haze, | 5 |
| While the west from a rapture of sunset rights, | |
| Faint stars their exquisite lamps upraise— | |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | |
| |
| The wood’s green heart is a nest of dreams, | |
| The lush grass thickens and springs and sways, | 10 |
| The rathe wheat rustles, the landscape gleams— | |
| Midsummer days! midsummer days! | |
| In the stilly fields, in the stilly ways, | |
| All secret shadows and mystic lights, | |
| Late lovers murmurous linger and gaze— | 15 |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | |
| |
| There ’s a music of bells from the trampling teams, | |
| Wild skylarks hover, the gorses blaze, | |
| The rich ripe rose as with incense steams— | |
| Midsummer days! midsummer days! | 20 |
| A soul from the honeysuckle strays, | |
| And the nightingale as from prophet heights | |
| Sings to the earth of her million Mays— | |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | |
| |
ENVOY And it ’s oh! for my dear, and the charm that stays— | 25 |
| Midsummer days! midsummer days! | |
| It ’s oh! for my love, and the dark that plights— | |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | |
| |
