Читать книгу Weeds by the Wall: Verses - Cawein Madison Julius - Страница 3

There is a path that leads

Through purple iron-weeds,

By button-bush and mallow

Along a creek;

A path that wildflowers hallow,

That wild birds seek;

Roofed thick with eglantine

And grape and trumpet-vine.

This side, blackberries sweet

Glow cobalt in the heat;

That side, a creamy yellow,

In summertime

The pawpaws slowly mellow;

And autumn's prime

Strews red the Chickasaw,

Persimmon brown and haw.

The glittering dragon-fly,

A wingéd flash, goes by;

And tawny wasp and hornet

Seem gleams that drone;

The beetle, like a garnet,

Slips from the stone;

And butterflies float there,

Spangling with gold the air.

Here the brown thrashers hide,

The chat and cat-bird chide;

The blue kingfisher houses

Above the stream,

And here the heron drowses

Lost in his dream;

The vireo's flitting note

Haunts all the wild remote.

And now a cow's slow bell

Tinkles along the dell;

Where breeze-dropped petals winnow

From blossomy limbs

On waters, where the minnow,

Faint-twinkling, swims;

Where, in the root-arched shade,

Slim prisms of light are laid.

When in the tangled thorn

The new-moon hangs a horn,

Or, 'mid the sunset's islands,

Guides a canoe,

The brown owl in the silence

Calls, and the dew

Beads here its orbs of damp,

Each one a firefly lamp.

Then when the night is still

Here sings the whippoorwill;

And stealthy sounds of crickets,

And winds that pass,

Whispering, through bramble thickets

Along the grass,

Faint with far scents of hay,

Seem feet of dreams astray.

And where the water shines

Dark through tree-twisted vines,

Some water-spirit, dreaming,

Braids in her hair

A star's reflection; seeming

A jewel there;

While all the sweet night long

Ripples her quiet song…

Would I could imitate,

O path, thy happy state!

Making my life all beauty,

All bloom and beam;

Knowing no other duty

Than just to dream,

And far from pain and woe

Lead feet that come and go.

Leading to calm content,

O'er ways the Master went,

Through lowly things and humble,

To peace and love;

Teaching the lives that stumble

To look above,

Forget the world of toil

And all its sad turmoil.