��THE LAUGHERS
Spring !
And her hidden bugles up the street.
Spring — and the sweet
Laughter of winds at the crossing ;
Laughter of birds and a fountain tossing
Its hair in abandoned ecstasies.
Laughter of trees.
Laughter of shop-girls that giggle and blush ;
Laugh of the tug-boat's impertinent fife.
Laughter followed by a trembling hush —
Laughter of love, scarce whispered aloud.
Then, stilled by no sacredness or strife,
Laughter that leaps from the crowd ;
Seizing the world in a rush.
Laughter of life. . . .
Earth takes deep breaths like a man who had feared
he might smother. Filling his lungs before bursting into a shout. . . . Windows are opened — curtains flying out ; Over the wash-lines women call to each other. And, under the calling, there surges, too clearly to
doubt,
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