THE broad round-shouldered giant Earth

Upbears no land more sweet

Than that whereon in heedless mirth

Went free my childish feet;

No fairer river furroweth,

With its strong steel-blue share,

The hill-sides and the vales of earth,

Than that which floweth there.

For rigid fasting hermit John

They named the glorious stream,

As seamen on his holy morn

Beheld its harbor's gleam.

Now that the green is on the plain,

The azure in the sky,

Wherewith clear sunshine after rain

Decketh the rich July,

Broad is the leaf and bright the flower;

Close to the pale gray sands

Coarse alder grows, and virgin's bower

Grasps it with slender hands.

With honeysuckles, meadow-sweets,

And rue the banks are lined;

O'er wide fields dance gay marguerites

To pipe of merry wind.

By the tall tiger-lily's side

Stands the rich golden-rod,

A king's son wooing for his bride,

The daughter of a god.

When fresh and bright were all green things,

And June was in the sky,

The dandelions made them wings,

And did as riches fly;

Now the bright buttercups with gold

Empave a toil-trod road—

Can wayfarers their sheen behold

Nor sigh for streets of God?

The birds are homed amid the boughs

Of oak and elm trees grand;

As for the snipe, her lowly house

She maketh in the sand;

From intervale and swampy dale

Are wafts of fragrance blown,

Of fern and mint and calamus,

And wild hay newly mown.

God's fiery touch hath reached the earth,

And lo! its odors rise

Like incense pure of priceless worth

Offered in sacrifice.