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 Three Urgandas
2. Face to Face
3. Response
4. Last Days
5. Rembrandts

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