The times., 1901-05-12
Midsummer,

Midsummer weariness doth cling TO me-
| The year hath wrought her dazzling pageantry
And broodeth passive in safety.
Wide calms OF increase STAY her restless wing
| As fight were but a pastime meet for days
| Before the idle joy Of ripenng.
| When stress of growth compelled the forest ways
| Der spent with torrid bloom the garden burns
No longer to the in trembling turns
Her faint-hued hopes; but in her glory spUrns
Him as riyal Well she hath forgot
How once shy perfumes wooed each passing
And dropping blossoms prayed him tarry not
Then yielded smiling to his sultry trancel
The lusty freshet brawls from shore 70 shore,
Nor in strange elfn voices doth implOre--
Command, beseech, or warn OF coming woe;
Or call her leaping comrades from afar,
Or glad the thirsty cattle they go.
So parched and low her tinklng accents are.
The grassy folk now lull the iivelong night,
Rocking the silence-haply TO requite
For choruses OF birds too old to plight
! know not when the red-robed cardinal
First mid the sedge and rank-grown rushe,
stood
Nor at what hushed and measured interval
There fell an herby twilight through the wood
Nor when upon the hills the flooding tide
Of summer broke up their purple side
The hoary ohestuuts like surf iinging wide
Against foreign shore, did first appear.
But now the golden rods gay heraldry
In stony pastures lifts yellow cheer;
And heavy walks the grain upon the lea.
Midsummer WEAKNESS doth cling to me-
Beneath her fruitage brave the apple tree
Stoops with the burden OF her dignity;
Nor longer, as in days OF budded bliss,
Doth toss at pleasure of the vagrsnt wind,
Or eovet keen the raindrop's ieweled kiss,
Or Springtide wonder in her nestlings find
Nof unfx xsatf he 1auuard urcrt b7ua
That loveliest lingerer-eyer true
Unto her roadside tryst OF hoar and dew.
Not yet the sobering OF early ewes;
The freside joy whose timely respite giOws
With spirit Of the autumn and her sheaves;
Not yet the dusky grape, or aught Of those
Proclaiming harbingers. The covert sign
OF sap arrested marks the solstice line;
The laugh Of Summer now 4 smile benign.
But nowhere warns the shadow OF the Fall,
Though nowhere bides the busy seedtime
While imperceptible the omens crawl
Between the distant sickle aud the seythe.
The cleaning corn. in valiant lines arrayed,
Hath vet no rust upon the shining blade
Drawn bright against the sun; and deep in
shade
The green voiced breath Of soothing minstrelsy
Doth ever coax and rustic, muse, and sing
While underneath Gll musky fattery
The tasselled ear doth hint OF harvesting!
The water-lily bares her fragrant breast;
Across the cloudless sky from east 20 west
No mysteries are hid-no JOY ungueSsed.
By day, like some bewildered ROmmany,
The crescent moon seeks out her evening trail;
The roadside gypsy sells her augury;
Nor does one looked-for token halt or fail.
Yet all unmoved we speed the step Of life
The tarnished pleasure and the lOosened strife,
The garnered wisdom grave, or folly rife!
Midsummer weariness doth cling to ne
Only lnVc shall yvaE uor
Eternal pain, eternal ecstasy!
Earth's ebb and flow masque OF visions vain
All. dreams OF bloom and fecund sleep. We lead
Beyond the pale OF time; ere mortals heed
Your beckOncd beauties one BY one recedel
Only our love shall all unchanging stand
One fixed star amid the circling spheres
Within the rainbow that hath ever spanned
The heart OF man and passing OF the years
Martha Gilbert Dickinson, in Scribners Maga-