Classic Poem

EARTH'S awake, 'neath the laughing skies,
After the dewy and dreamy night,—
Riot of roses and babel of birds,
All the world in a whirl of delight.

Roses smile in their white content,
Roses blush in their crimson bliss,
As the vagrant breezes wooing them
Ruffle their petals with careless kiss.

Yellow butterflies flutter and float
Jewelled humming-birds glitter and glow,
And scorning the ways of such idle things
Bees flit busily to and fro.

The mocking-bird swells his anxious throat,
Trying to be ten birds in one;
And the swallow twitters, and dives, and darts
Into the azure to find the sun.

But robin red-breast builds his house
Singing a song of the joy to come,
And the oriole trims his golden vest,
Glad to be back in his last year's home.

Lilies that sway on their slender stalks,
Morning-glories that nod to the breeze,
Bloom of blossoms and joy of birds,—
What in the world is better than these?