Classic Poem

Musing, I said, “Now that the summer's blaze
Has dimmed the teeming blossoms of the meads
And dulled the lilies by the lyric reeds,
Few flowers are left. Barren are all the ways.”
Then, 'mid a straggling growth of browns and grays,
The blue of heaven bloomed—weed among weeds—
Yet pure delight it brought me, and I needs
Must claim it as a Flower through all my days.

O spirit of April in the fading year—
Sweet harbinger of far celestial birth!
Thou bear'st a message we may not ignore,
For while the tiger Hates of Europe roar,
Thou, by thine azure, bring'st the sky anear,
To show a little of heaven is still on earth.