Poem by Denis Florence MacCarthy

Sweet May

The summer is come!--the summer is come!
  With its flowers and its branches green,
Where the young birds chirp on the blossoming boughs,
  And the sunlight struggles between:
And, like children, over the earth and sky
  The flowers and the light clouds play;
But never before to my heart or eye
  Came there ever so sweet a May
                             As this--
                       Sweet May! sweet May!

Oh! many a time have I wandered out
  In the youth of the opening year,
When Nature's face was fair to my eye,
  And her voice was sweet to my ear!
When I numbered the daisies, so few and shy,
  That I met in my lonely way;
But never before to my heart or eye,
  Came there ever so sweet a May
                             As this--
                       Sweet May! sweet May!

If the flowers delayed, or the beams were cold,
  Or the blossoming trees were bare,
I had but to look in the poet's book,
  For the summer is always there!
But the sunny page I now put by,
  And joy in the darkest day!
For never before to my heart or eye,
  Came there ever so sweet a May
                             As this--
                       Sweet May! sweet May!

For, ah! the belovéd at length has come,
  Like the breath of May from afar;
And my heart is lit with gentle eyes,
  As the heavens by the evening star.
'Tis this that brightens the darkest sky,
  And lengthens the faintest ray,
And makes me feel that to the heart or eye
  There was never so sweet a May
                             As this--
                       Sweet May! sweet May!

1. The Vale of Shanganah
2. The Seasons of the Heart
3. Waiting for the May
4. Devotion
5. The Bridal of the Year

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