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.