54980: Sedge-Warblers

<p dir="ltr"> This beauty made me dream there was a time<br> Long past and irrecoverable, a clime<br> Where any brook so radiant racing clear<br> Through buttercup and kingcup bright as brass<br> But gentle, nourishing the meadow grass<br> That leans and scurries in the wind, would bear<br> Another beauty, divine and feminine,<br> Child to the sun, a nymph whose soul unstained<br> Could love all day, and never hate or tire,<br> A lover of mortal or immortal kin.<br> And yet, rid of this dream, ere I had drained<br> Its poison, quieted was my desire<br> So that I only looked into the water,<br> Clearer than any goddess or man's daughter,<br> And hearkened while it combed the dark green hair<br> And shook the millions of the blossoms white<br> Of water-crowfoot, and curdled to one sheet<br> The flowers fallen from the chestnuts in the park<br> Far off. And sedge-warblers, clinging so light<br> To willow twigs, sang longer than the lark,<br> Quick, shrill, or grating, a song to match the heat<br> Of the strong sun, nor less the water's cool,<br> Gushing through narrows, swirling in the pool.<br> Their song that lacks all words, all melody,<br> All sweetness almost, was dearer then to me<br> Than sweetest voice that sings in tune sweet words.<br> This was the best of May---the small brown birds<br> Wisely reiterating endlessly<br> What no man learnt yet, in or out of school.<br></p>