English poem
The Wood Thrush I (When the May eve is soft with misty rain)
by Bliss Carman
When the May eve is soft with misty rain And all the world is hushed as in a trance, Save for a white-throat singing far away, The woods are tinged with purple in the dusk, Where Spring's green fire is smouldering into life. It surges to the tree-tops like a tide, Touches the peach trees at the garden's end, And burns among the tulips in cool flame. Ah, then we listen for the magic note We know must come with soul enchantment soon— Clear as the mythic pipes men used to hear In wild Arcadian valleys long ago Haunting the woodlands with supernal cry— The clear impassioned ecstasy of life.
More by Bliss Carman
- The Winter Scene I (The rutted roads are all like iron; skies)
- The Winter Scene II (Out from the silent portal of the hours)
- The Winter Scene III (Russet and white and gray is the oak wood)
- The Winter Scene IV (When the day changed and the mad wind died down)
- The Wood Thrush II (Hark, from the twilit wood beyond the road)
- The Wood Thrush III (O music maker of the pagan Spring)
- The Wood-God.
- The Word Of The Water