Poems (Dudley)/A June Memory

by Marion Vienna Churchill Dudley

A JUNE MEMORY.

THAT rare June eve, with crescent moon
 Low hung upon the West;
Shy glint of stars and stir of leaves
 And chirp from air-swung nest;
With balmy odors, dew-distilled,
 Afloat upon the breeze;
Soft hum of insects, lapse of waves
 And whispering of trees,—

Thrills through my life a tender pain
 Like some sweet, broken vow;
A jewel, golden to the eye,
 But heavy on the brow.
The Summer-mother, whose young heart
 Throbbed rapture at its birth,
With drooping head and trailing wings
 Passed sadly from the earth;

And later Summers, fair and sweet,
 With tropic-scented breath,
Have nestled in the arms of Earth
 And sung themselves to death;
But all have lacked the glowing warmth,
 The sensitive perfume,
That filled the air and thrilled my soul
 One eve in that dead June.