Summer Studies

WHY shouldst thou study in the month of JuneIn dusky books of Greek and Hebrew lore,When the Great Teacher of all glorious thingsPasses in hourly light before thy door?

There is a brighter book unrolling now;Fair are its leaves as is the tree of heaven,All veined and dewed and gemmed with wondrous signs,To which a healing mystic power is given.

A thousand voices to its study call,From the fair hill-top, from the waterfall,Where the bird singeth, and the yellow bee,And the breeze talketh from the airy tree.

Now is that glorious resurrection timeWhen all earth's buried beauties have new birth:Behold the yearly miracle complete,--God hath created a new heaven and earth!

No tree that wants its joyful garments now,No flower but hastes his bravery to don;God bids thee to this marriage feast of joy,Let thy soul put the wedding garment on.

All fringed with festal gold the barberry stands;The ferns, exultant, clap their new-made wings;The hemlock rustles broideries of fresh green,And thousand bells of pearl the blueberry rings.

The long, weird fingers of the old white-pinesDo beckon thee into the flickering wood,Where moving spots of light show mystic flowers,And wavering music fills the dreamy hours.

Hast thou no time for all this wondrous show,--No thought to spare? Wilt thou forever beWith thy last year's dry flower-stalk and dead leaves,And no new shoot or blossom on thy tree?

See how the pines push off their last year's leaves.And stretch beyond them with exultant bound:The grass and flowers, with living power, o'ergrowTheir last year's remnants on the greening ground.

Wilt thou, then, all thy wintry feelings keep,The old dead routine of thy book-writ lore,Nor deem that God can teach, by one bright hour,What life hath never taught to thee before?

See what vast leisure, what unbounded rest,Lie in the bending dome of the blue sky:Ah! breathe that life-born languor from thy breast,And know once more a child's unreasoning joy.

Cease, cease to think, and be content to be;Swing safe at anchor in fair Nature's bay;Reason no more, but o'er thy quiet soulLet God's sweet teachings ripple their soft way.

Soar with the birds, and flutter with the leaf;Dance with the seeded grass in fringy play;Sail with the cloud, wave with the dreaming pine,And float with Nature all the livelong day.

Call not such hours an idle waste of time,--Land that lies fallow gains a quiet power;It treasures, from the brooding of God's wings,Strength to unfold the future tree and flower.

And when the summer's glorious show is past,Its miracles no longer charm thy sight,The treasured riches of those thoughtful hoursShall make thy wintry musings warm and bright.