Classic Poem

1

Summertime , and a wasted shroud, and the sun-light glancing through;
And the stir of a creeping thing withal;
Thinking to crawl, —
It flew.

2

A S if a yellow pansy from its stem had loos'd and flown,
Up it flutter'd, scarce aware,
Thro' crystal air
Unknown.

3

To find the narrow world that was now blossom'd endless wide:
And sailing on its saffron wings,
Soon wondrous things,
It spied.

4

Around were honied feasts all set in the hearts of a thousand flowers;
And merry mates to while away
In wanton play
The hours.

5

With them it drifted, wing aslant, on veering winds at ease,
Or ventur'd cool luxurious flights
To the curving heights
Of trees.

6

Or lone amid the pink, delicious petals of a rose
Anon 'twould linger somnolent
In the rapt content
Which knows

7

No end to leaves, no end to flowers, and the sweet grass under all:
Then revel again with its airy clan
Till night began
To fall.

8

'Twould cling in careless slumber then to the nearest scented brake,
Or as the dusky hours wore on
Perchance anon
'Twould wake

9

With star-enamor'd kinsmen to explore a mystic noon,
Winging a far, entranced flight
In the lost light
Of the Moon.

10

To settle at length awearied in some lily-chalice pale;
Nor waken till full-breasted Morn
Rose breathing warm
And hale.

11

So passed for it the easy hours; but Summer waned at last,
And its flower-body fell away
As a husk one day
Offcast.

12

Yet surely as before it knew a joyous wakening,
So on some new and far-away
Exultant day
In Spring.

13

Another form shall build itself from out the form less Deep;
For outer life befitting well
The thing that fell
Asleep.

14

For in the loom of things to be the meanest life hath place
To mark the way that it shall go, —
By patterns slow
To trace

15

Its long ascent thro' Dust and Death to God's infinity;
And evermore the seed unseen
Of what hath been
Shall be.