| Poems by Women |
MIDSUMMER
After the May time and after the June time
Rare with blossoms and perfume
sweet,
Cometh the round world's royal noon time,
The red midsummer of
blazing heat,
When the sun, like an eye that never closes,
Bends on the
earth its fervid gaze,
And the winds are still, and the crimson
roses
Droop and wither and die in its rays.
Unto my heart has come this season,
O, my lady, my worshiped one,
When,
over the stars of Pride and Reason,
Sails Love's cloudless, noonday
sun.
Like a great red ball in my bosom burning
With fires that nothing can
quench or tame,
It glows till my heart itself seems turning
Into a liquid
lake of flame.
The hopes half shy and the sighs all tender,
The dreams and fears of an
earlier day,
Under the noontide's royal splendor,
Droop like roses, and
wither away.
From the hills of Doubt no winds are blowing,
From the isles
of Pain no breeze is sent, -
Only the sun in a white heat glowing
Over an
ocean of great content.
Sink, O my soul, in this golden glory!
Die, O my heart, in thy
rapture-swoon!
For the Autumn must come with its mournful story.
And
Love's midsummer will fade too soon.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox [1850-1919]
From: Stevenson, Burton Egbert.
The Home Book of Verse.
This poet:
[Author index]
This collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Collection © 1999-2002 Jone Johnson Lewis.
Citing poems from these pages:
| Author. "Poem Title." Women's History: Poems by Women. Jone Johnson Lewis, editor. URL: (date of logon) |
