Poem by James Gates Percival

May

I FEEL newer life in every gale;
    The winds, that fan the flowers, 
And with their welcome breathings fill the sail,
    Tell of serener hours-- 
    Of hours that glide unfelt away 
    beneath the sky of May.

The spirit of the gentle south-wind calls
    From his blue throne of air, 
And where his whispering voice in music falls,
    Beauty is budding there; 
    The bright ones of the valley break 
    Their slumbers, and awake.

The waving verdue rolls along the plain,
    And the wide forest weaves, 
To welcome back its playful mates again,
    A canopy of leaves; 
    And from its darkening shadow floats 
    A gush of trembling notes.

Fairer and brighter spreads the reign of May;
    The tresses of the woods 
With the light dallying of the west-wind play;
    And the full-brimming floods, 
    As gladly to their goal they run, 
    Hail the returning sun.

1. Perry's Victory on Lake Erie
2. The Deserted Wife
3. The Coral Grove
4. To Seneca Lake
5. Spring

Benjamin Brierley May ("MAY is come!—the month of flowers")

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