She comes with soft and scented breath,
From fragrant southern lands,
And wakens from their trance of death
The flowers, and breaks the hands
Of fettered streams, that burst away
With joyous laugh and song,
And shout and leap like boys at play
As home from school they throng.
From sunny climes the breeze set free
Comes with an angel strain
Athwart the blue and sparkling sea
To visit us again.
The low of herds is on the gale,
The leaf is on the tree,
And cloud-winged barks in silence sail
With stately majesty
Along the blue and bending sky,
Like joyous living things,
And rainbow-tinted birds flit by
With swiftly glancing wings:
O summer, summer! joyful time!
Singing a gentle strain,
Thou comest from a warmer clime
To visit us again!