The South Wind and the Sun

O the South Wind and the SunHow each loved the other one--Full of fancy--full of folly--Full of jollity and fun!How they romped and ran about,Like two boys when school is out,With glowing face, and lisping lip,Low laugh, and lifted shout!

And the South Wind--he was dressedWith a ribbon round his breastThat floated, flapped and flutteredIn a riotous unrest;And a drapery of mist,From the shoulder and the wristFlowing backward with the motionOf the waving hand he kissed.

And the Sun had on a crownWrought of gilded thistledown,And a scarf of velvet vapor,And a raveled-rainbow gown;And his tinsel-tangled hair,Tossed and lost upon the air,With glossier and flossierThan any anywhere.

And the South Wind's eyes were twoLittle dancing drops of dew,As he puffed his cheeks, and pursed his lips,And blew and blew and blew!And the Sun's--like diamond-stone,Brighter yet than ever known,As he knit his brows and held his breath,And shone and shone and shone!

And this pair of merry faysWandered through the summer days;Arm-in-arm they went togetherOver heights of morning haze--Over slanting slopes of lawnThey went on and on and on,Where the daisies looked like star-tracksTrailing up and down the dawn.

And where'er they found the topOf a wheat-stalk droop and lop,They chucked it underneath the chinAnd praised the lavish crop,Till it lifted with the prideOf the heads it grew beside,And then the South Wind and the SunWent onward satisfied.

Over meadow-lands they tripped,Where the dandelions dippedIn crimson foam of clover bloomAnd dripped and dripped and dripped!And they clinched the bumble-stings,Gauming honey on their wings,And bundling them in lily-bells,With maudlin murmurings.

And the humming-bird, that hungLike a jewel up amongThe tilted honeysuckle horns,They mesmerized and swungIn the palpitating air,Drowsed with odors strange and rare,And, with whispered laughter, slipped away,And left him hanging there.

And they braided blades of grassWhere the truant had to pass;And they wriggled through the rushesAnd the reeds of the morass,Where they danced, in rapture sweet,O'er the leaves that laid a streetOf undulant mosaic forThe touches of their feet.

By the brook with mossy brink,Where the cattle came to drink,They trilled and piped and whistledWith the thrush and bobolink,Till the kine, in listless pause,Switched their tails in mute applause,With lifted heads, and dreamy eyes,And bubble-dripping jaws.

And where the melons grew,Streaked with yellow, green and blue,These jolly sprites went wanderingThrough spangled paths of dew;And the melons, here and there,They made love to, everywhere,Turning their pink souls to crimsonWith caresses fond and fair.

Over orchard walls they went,Where the fruited boughs were bentTill they brushed the sward beneath themWhere the shine and shadow blent;And the great green pear they shookTill the sallow hue forsookIts features, and the gleam of goldLaughed out in every look.

And they stroked the downy cheekOf the peach, and smoothed it sleek,And flushed it into splendor;And, with many an elfish freak,Gave the russet's rust a wipe--Prankt the rambo with a stripe,And the winesap blushed its reddestAs they spanked the pippins ripe.

Through the woven ambuscadeThat the twining vines had made,They found the grapes, in clusters,Drinking up the shine and shade--Plumpt, like tiny skins of wine,With a vintage so divineThat the tongue of Fancy tingledWith the tang of muscadine.

And the golden-banded bees,Droning o'er the flowery leas,They bridled, reined, and rode awayAcross the fragrant breeze,Till in hollow oak and elmThey had groomed and stabled themIn waxen stalls that oozed with dewsOf rose and lily-stem.

Where the dusty highway leads,High above the wayside weeds,They sowed the air with butterfliesLike blooming flower-seeds,Till the dull grasshopper sprungHalf a man's-height up, and hungTranced in the heat, with whirring wings,And sung and sung and sung!

And they loitered, hand in hand,Where the snipe along the sandOf the river ran to meet themAs the ripple meets the land,Till the dragonfly, in lightGauzy armor, burnished bright,Came tilting down the watersIn a wild, bewildered flight.

And they heard the kildee's call,And afar, the waterfall,But the rustle of a falling leafThey heard above it all;And the trailing willow creptDeeper in the tide that sweptThe leafy shallop to the shore,And wept and wept and wept!

And the fairy vessel veeredFrom its moorings--tacked and steeredFor the center of the current--Sailed away and disappeared:And the burthen that it boreFrom the long-enchanted shore--"Alas! the South Wind and the Sun!"I murmur evermore.

For the South Wind and the Sun,Each so loves the other one,For all his jolly folly,And frivolity and fun,That our love for them they weighAs their fickle fancies may,And when at last we love them most,They laugh and sail away.