A Dream of Summer

BLAND as the morning breath of June

The southwest breezes play;

And, through its haze, the winter noon

Seems warm as summer’s day.

The snow-plumed Angel of the North

Has dropped his icy spear;

Again the mossy earth looks forth,

Again the streams gush clear.

The fox his hillside cell forsakes,

The muskrat leaves his nook,

The bluebird in the meadow brakes

Is singing with the brook.

“Bear up, O Mother Nature!” cry

Bird, breeze, and streamlet free;

“Our winter voices prophesy

Of summer days to thee!”

So, in those winters of the soul,

By bitter blasts and drear

O’erswept from Memory’s frozen pole,

Will sunny days appear.

Reviving Hope and Faith, they show

The soul its living powers,

And how beneath the winter’s snow

Lie germs of summer flowers!

The Night is mother of the Day,

The Winter of the Spring,

And ever upon old Decay

The greenest mosses cling.

Behind the cloud the starlight lurks,

Through showers the sunbeams fall;

For God, who loveth all His works,

Has left His hope with all!

4th 1st month, 1847.