Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By Edward A. U.Valentine1620 The Spirit of the Wheat
S
The foamless billows of the wheat,
I glimpse the floating limbs of her
In instant visions melting sweet.
Or arms that clasp upon the air,
An upturned face’s rosy dream,
Half blinded by the sunlit hair.
And rapture of that summer sea;
A siren of elusive spell,
Born of the womb of mystery,—
Glad in the summer’s perfect prime,
Full-veined with life’s felicity
And faith that knows no winter-time.
On that green flood like mirrored stars,
Against the hush her faint voice yearns,
Breathed to a light harp’s happy bars.
Midsummer’s long, luxurious day,
And amber-red the ripe waves glow,
Ah, then it is she slips away!
The reapers wade within the wheat,
And as they work in harvest ways,
What amorous sights their vision cheat!
Or hollow of the wind-swept grain,
Her wafted fingers foam-like flash,
Her laughing body drifts amain.
A sighing ebbs along the wheat;
Borne onward by a golden swell,
She fades into the wrinkling heat.