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Poems (Allen)/June

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For works with similar titles, see June.
4385931Poems — JuneElizabeth Chase Allen
JUNE.
NEVER was my life's neglected garden
Half so full of fragrance as to-day,—
Never has the world been half so radiant,
Nor its shapes of sorrow and dismay
Ever seemed so few and far away.

Wide the chestnut waves its spreading branches,
In a white bewilderment of bloom,—
And the lilacs overwhelmed with blossoms,
Drooping like a wounded warrior's plume,
Hang their faint heads heavy with perfume.

On the sea a veil of silvery softness,
Faint, and filmy, and mysterious, lies,—
Blending doubtfully the far horizon
With the azure of the smiling skies,
Tender as the blue of loving eyes.

On the grass the fallen apple-blossoms
Heap a pillow rosy-hued and rare,
While the dim ghosts of the dandelions
Sail serenely in the untroubled air,—
And the clover blushes everywhere.

In the leaves a bobolink is pouring
Passion-songs which brook no pause or rest—
Hark! how gushingly the liquid music
Swells and overflows his trembling breast,
Like a love that cannot be repressed!

O the joy, the luxury, the rapture,
Thus to brush away the chains of care,
Thus to drop the mask from heart and forehead,—
To be glad and young again, and wear
Lilies-of-the-valley in my hair!

Far away, unfelt and scarce remembered,
Seems the world-life, harsh and turbulent,
So much harmony, and joy and beauty,
In this matchless day of days are blent:
I desire no more,—I am content!