Poem by Madison Julius Cawein

The Sweet o' the Year

I

How can I help from laughing while
The daffodilies at me smile;
The tickled dew winks tipsily
In clusters of the lilac-tree;
The crocuses and hyacinths
Storm through the grassy labyrinths
A mirth of gold and violet;
 And roses, bud by bud,
Flash from each dainty-lacing net
 Red lips of maidenhood?

II

How can I help from singing when
The swallow and the hawk again
Are noisy in the hyaline
Of happy heavens clear as wine;
The robin lustily and shrill
Pipes on the timber-bosomed hill;
And o'er the fallow skim the bold,
 Mad orioles that glow
Like shining shafts of ingot gold
 Shot from the morning's bow?

III

How can I help from loving, dear,
Since love is of the sweetened year?
The very vermin feel her power,
And chip and chirrup hour by hour:
It is the grasshopper at noon,
The cricket's at it in the moon,
Whiles lizzards glitter in the dew,
 And bats be on the wing;
Such days of joy are short and few.
 Grant me thy love this spring.

1. The Iron Cross
2. In the Mountains
3. Semper Idem
4. The Battle
5. Night and Rain

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