Spring Idyll, A

When May comes crowned with leaf & bird
     And flowers that glorify the earth,
It sends a spirit through our blood
That overflows like the flood
     Of light at mornings primal birth.
So are we chosen guests among
     The charter[?] of that golden dawn
By whom the song sublime as sung
In concert when the world was young
     And night was to the gulf[?] withdrawn.

Brown Robin pert, our next of kin,
     Invades our porches, lawns, & fens[?]
And when his hunger-fits begin
He hopes & harks, & tugs to win
     The worm he hears before he sees.
When May leans tenderly o’er June
     The little wren, that feathered Voice,
Pours jubilant a weird tune
The woodland elfs understand some
At which the flowing glens rejoice! [these last few lines conjectural]

The Hummingbird in glimpses seen
     Has built his moss-clad balcony
Setting his green against the green,
His gray to gray, & eyes are keen
    That see it on the mossy tree.

Close under berrybush & pear
     Are hid’n the shy things of the field
Squirrel & rabbit by the burn
That ripple down with many a turn,
     By many a grassy tuft concealed
A sight to make the children laugh—
     Where feeds the serious mother cow
The sprawling, clumsy-footed calf
Shambles across the meadow, half
     Delirious at the knowing how

The farmer, lord of barn & mead,
     With brown, bare arms of ridgy brawn[?],
Plods field-ward with his hoe & seed,
Forecasting life’s autumnal need,
     As busy birds predict the dawn.

On him we lean, in him we trust,
Great almoner from God to man;
Showing the punctual heavens are just,
He lifts our fancies from the dust,
Himself a power in Nature’s plan!