Summer Songs

I
How thick the grass,
How green the shade -
All for love
And lovers made.
Wood-lilies white
As hidden lace -
Open your bodice,
That's their place.
See how the sun-god
Overpowers
The summer lying
Deep in flowers;
With burning kisses
Of bright gold
Fills her young womb
With joy untold;
And all the world
Is lad and lass,
A blue sky
And a couch of grass.
Summer is here -
let us drain
It all! it may
Not come again.
II
How the leaves thicken
On the boughs,
And the birds make
Their lyric vows.
O the beating, breaking
Heart of things,
The pulse and passion -
How it sings.
How it burns and flames
And showers,
Lusts and laughs, flowers
And deflowers.
III
Summer came,
Rose on rose;
Leaf on leaf,
Summer goes.
Summer came,
Song on song;
O summer had
A golden tongue.
Summer goes,
Sigh on sigh;
Not a rose
Sees him die.