Watertown Republican

SONG OF SUMMER.
BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW
Leaf by leaf is summer creeping,
Flower by flower be glory reaping
Harvest of the rolling spheres;
Cloud by cloud the sky is freighted
And to every bud bepainted
They have steep'd in dewy tears.
Day by day the flocks are keeping
Watch upon the silent hills.
And the noon breeze there is sleeping
To the cradle song of rills.
Beam by beam the sun is stealing
Into hearts of all the flowers,
And those crimson hearts revealing
Something that's akin to ours.
Bird and bee have spread the tidings
Meadowed in golden swarms;
And the season's first rude chidings
Wanton play in wealth of charms;
All things worship, e'en the clover
Folds at eve its crimson palms
Month by month the moon's intrusion,
As a spectre in the dark,
Moves in phantom-like collusion
All the vernal bloom to mark?
And the azure arch of hours
Measures out the summer's dowers:
Night by night the sea of darkness
Drifting shoreward to the sun,
Marks the earth with silent beauty
Ere the dusky round is run;
And the eye beholds in waking
New perfections just begun.
Pulse by pulse our life is fleeting
Where unclouded mornings beam—
Down the vale of years retreating
Like a white mist o'er a stream ;
Soon a grave-mist will be veiling
All things in a long death-dream