Poems (Denver)/Summer wept

by Mary Caroline Denver

SUMMER WEPT.

Thou didst weep, Summer, when thy soft feet pressed
 The verdant covering Spring had left behind;
We heard the sighs that trembled from thy breast,
 Come in the murmurs of the broken wind;
And from the mourning skies the bright drops fell,
Bathing in tears the hill and wood and dell.

Was there a darkness o'er thy pathway thrown,
 Or didst thou miss a flower thy spirit sought?
Was there a gem thou could'st not call thine own,
 A smile thou thought'st to meet, and found it not?
O! in thy skies a matchless beauty slept,
And o'er thine earth a stream of brightness swept.

Did'st thou behold a heart beneath thy skies,
 Whereon the foot of misery had trod?
And did thy spirit from its stillness rise,
 And send the voice of sympathy abroad?
Lovely, oh! summer, did thy smile appear
In days of yore, when blithely resting here!

Where has its brightness fled? why dost thou pour,
 As from a heart of grief, thy wailings forth?
Oh, let it speak in gladness, as of yore,
 And light the green earth with its smile of mirth,
Such as the young Spring loved, when thee before,
Softly she vanished, and was seen no more.