Classic Poem

Spring was at her height:
The red cardinal was building his nest, and singing:
The stags were battling for the does.

There is in that forest a leafy covert, in shadow, with soft grass:
Violets peer among the grasses:
And the amorous wind, gone cool and hot,
Is rich with herbage, and the damp rank Earth,
And pungency of pines.

A bed this, for lovers,
In the season when Earth is a bridal bed,
And many songs rise, and a dream wings tree to tree;—
Then in agony is ecstasy, and the wild, the golden energy
Goes restless through all bodies of life:
And there is desire to create, the longing for children.

On this day, through sun and flying shadow of the forest,
The young lovers went, nearly running, and with no words,
Until they found the covert.

There they stretched their fresh young bodies on the grasses,
And panted secretly …

Thought was gone, and speech lost:
They were caught in the inarticulate silence of nature:
Which feels so deep it cannot speak.