Classic Poem

On Nature's round
The stillness passes into sound;
Which is most musical,
Song or the interval
When the silence stirs, to be
A voice, a melody?

On Nature's way
From out the dawning comes the day;
Which would the nice eye choose,
The noon-gold or the hues
When the shadow of the night
Wakes, smiling into light?

Beauty is bride
In midsummer or at springtide?
In June her solsticy
Or when the pale mists be,
When the clod feels some warm power
At work, and lo, a flower!

Ay, when is bliss
The sweetest that it ever is?
When the loved one is at rest
Upon the lover's breast,
Or when he first may dare
To dream he feels her there?