Classic Poem

The April rain falling is wooing and calling
The children of Summer to life and light,
And little feet clamber up from the still chamber
Where, since November, they have slept in night.

We shall hear the humming of their sweet-hearts coming,
Afloat on the wing of the purple air,
And see in the valleys, on hillsides and alleys,
By hovel and palace, their faces fair.

In fallow and meadow, in sunshine and shadow,
In prairies and woodlands, dingles and dells;
Where lichens are clinging and summer birds singing,
They will soon be ringing their fairy bells.

Some glowing and gleaming, some pensively dreaming,
Some clinging close to their mother, the sod;
Some proudly aspiring, in queenly attiring
To win the admiring gaze of their god.

In all hues and tinges, with ruffles and fringes,
They are coming now from their seeming death.
With their crowns and crosses, and mystical mosses,
Bright silken flosses and perfumed breath;

Some wearing white satin, with soft names in Latin,
With garnets and pearls in their diadems;
Some in velvets, shining with silvery lining,
Proudly reclining on emerald stems;

Some cautiously creeping and daintily peeping,
From under a stone or a thorny hedge;
Some veiling their faces with delicate laces,
In lowly places, by marsh and sedge.

They are beautiful teachers, voiceless preachers
Of the sweetest lessons the soul may learn:
For their life is a prayer to the Father whose care
Fills their chalices fair from His golden urn.

Blessing the lowliest, crowning the holiest,
Swing their censers in garden and grove;
Like angels weeping where the dead are sleeping—
Like angels keeping the vigil of love.

On valley and mountain, by river and fountain,
By wilderness ways and populous marts,
They minister pleasure, and give without measure
Delicious treasure from golden hearts.

With their tender faces and odorous graces,
They will bring the blessing of summer days
To many an attic, where bards erratic,
In dreams ecstatic, sing deathless lays.

Thank Heaven for the flowers that brighten earth's bowers!
They are types of life below and above—
Types dimly revealing God's merciful dealing,
Signing and sealing his charter of love.