LONG SUMMER DAYS.

Long summer days are my desire:

Red suns, that drop as globes of fire

Behind the sloped fields white with weed:

Warm winds, that waft the wandering seed

With silvery plume, now low, now higher:

Pale clematis that o’er the brier

Runs with frail feet that never tire

Beside rough roads: your gifts I need,

Long summer days!

Yet come not, O profane ones! nigher,

If in your stars be severance dire

Of dear companionship decreed:

For then, alas! ye were indeed,

Too far outstripping my desire,

Long summer days!