Flash of pure wildness on dusk Saguenay,
Awareness of wild nature's subtle breast,
Freight and athrill with weirdsome life, yet gay,
Thou cleav'st the deluge dense, a wingëd jest!—
That rallying mock and jeer's an impish mark—
The echo of thy flout of Noah's ark!
[HEPATICAS.]
A shining troop of cherubs just alit
From the low-bending skies,—child faces sweet,
Upturned and open to our human greet,—
Fresh from the gladsome fount of life emit!
Heralds of spring, forewinging, as ye flit,
The garland seasons with their sheaves of wheat,
And to all listening ears Christ's words repeat:
"Man shall not live by bread alone, 'tis writ"!
Evangelists fair of the new-made year,
This news from God, forgot, blow everywhere,
And fill the hollow sky, the haunting air;
Till from His loving mouth, as sphere to sphere,
Man knows the beautiful, the good, the true,
Divinest manna dipt in heavenly dew!
[IN THE MAYFLOWER COPSE.]
With gladsome note the robin debonair
Heralds bright May. Pale sky and earth-stained snow
Warm at the touch of south winds as they blow
Their wafts of life through winter's lingering air.
Hid, like some laughing child, shy Mayflower fair,
Beneath the leafy shield, with face aglow,
Thy pearly self the coy spring's first tableau,
Come to the day and yield thy fragrance rare!