ON READING THE POEMS OF EDITH THOMAS.

Then will I, tasting, say—

This is arbutus’ gift,

Reached from the leafy drift

On a glistening April day.

Wild Honey.

Arbutus’ gift, in very truth, I deem

These gathered, golden songs that keep the gleam

Of early sunlight through the awakened wood;

The vernal spirits of the sisterhood

There cloistered, rosy-cool and vestal-shy,

Are in these lucent cells enforced to lie;

Here bides the baffling fragrance, here the charm.

Henceforth I fear not frosty Hiems’ harm,

Though all his bluff besiegers he should bring;

Behold, my bookshelf lodges Ver, the Spring!