Poems (Blake)/An Invocation

by Mary Elizabeth Blake

For works with similar titles, see An Invocation.

AN INVOCATION.

Float with the dawn o'er the roseate waters,
Brightest and best of the year's fairest daughters;
Come where the blooms of the hill-side are springing,
Wake the wild birds to a thrill of sweet singing;
 Come with thine eyes full of passionate splendor,
 Reading earth's harmonies dreamy and tender;
 Come with thy lips full of love to caress us;
 Breath of the summer, draw nearer to bless us!

Speak to the woods, bid their silence be broken;
Speak to the fields, let their lesson be spoken;
Bid the closed cups of the flowers be riven,
Holding each chalice of dew-drops to heaven;
 Where the chill touch of the winter yet lingers,
 Holding life crushed in the clasp of its fingers,
 Break the dim shadow of ruin and of ruin and sadness
 Smile of the summer, wake sunshine and gladness!

Come to our lives with thy mission of healing
Wreathe thy fresh bloom o'er the old scars of feeling;
Whisper the message God gives to thy keeping,—
Light for the darkness and joy for the weeping;
 Where our souls wait full of darkness and glooming,
 Bid hope arise to make glad with its blooming;
 Draw back the vail from the grave's shrouded portal!
 Spirit of summer, show life is immortal!