July Fugitive
CAN you tell me where has hid herPretty Maid July?I would swear one day agoShe passed by,I would swear that I do knowThe blue bliss of her eye:‘Tarry, maid, maid,’ I bid her;But she hastened by.Do you know where she has hid her,Maid July?
Yet in truth it needs must beThe flight of her is old;Yet in truth it needs must be,For her nest, the earth, is cold.No more in the poolèd EvenWade her rosy feet,Dawn-flakes no more plash from themTo poppies ’mid the wheat.She has muddied the day’s oozesWith her petulant feet;Scared the clouds that floated,As sea-birds they were,Slow on the coeruleLulls of the air,Lulled on the luminousLevels of air:She has chidden in a petAll her stars from her;Now they wander loose and sighThrough the turbid blue,Now they wander, weep, and cry—Yea, and I too—‘Where are you, sweet July,Where are you?’
Who hath beheld her footprints,Or the pathway she goes?Tell me, wind, tell me, wheat,Which of you knows?Sleeps she swathed in the flushed ArcticNight of the rose?Or lie her limbs like Alp-glowOn the lily’s snows?Gales, that are all-visitant,Find the runaway;And for him who findeth her(I do charge you say)I will throw largesse of broomOf this summer’s mintage,I will broach a honey-bagOf the bee’s best vintage.Breezes, wheat, flowers sweet,None of them knows!How then shall we lure her backFrom the way she goes?For it were a shameful thing,Saw we not this comerEre Autumn camp upon the fieldsRed with rout of Summer.
When the bird quits the cage,We set the cage outside,With seed and with water,And the door wide,Haply we may win it soBack to abide.Hang her cage of earth outO’er Heaven’s sunward wall,Its four gates open, winds in watchBy reinèd cars at all;Relume in hanging hedgerowsThe rain-quenched blossom,And roses sob their tears outOn the gale’s warm heaving bosom;Shake the lilies till their scentOver-drip their rims;That our runaway may seeWe do know her whims:Sleek the tumbled waters outFor her travelled limbs;Strew and smoothe blue night thereon,There will—O not doubt her!—The lovely sleepy lady lie,With all her stars about her!