In woods and meadows lit with blossoming May;

But O, blithe voices, that have such sweet power,

Unto your high behest this summer hour

What answer has the poet? how shall he frame his lay?

II.
THEME.

“What shall my song rehearse?” I said

To a wise bard, whose hoary head

Is bowed, like Kearsarge crouching low

Beneath a winter weight of snow,

But whose songs of passion, joy, or scorn,