Summer

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h4><SPAN href="#p_185B">SUMMER.</SPAN></h4> <p>Winter is cold-hearted,<br/> Spring is yea and nay,<br/> Autumn is a weathercock<br/> Blown every way:<br/> Summer days for me<br/> When every leaf is on its tree;<br/> <br/> When Robin's not a beggar,<br/> And Jenny Wren's a bride,<br/> <SPAN name="p_186"><span class="pagenum">[186]</span></SPAN>And larks hang singing, singing, singing,<br/> Over the wheat-fields wide,<br/> And anchored lilies ride,<br/> And the pendulum spider<br/> Swings from side to side,<br/> <br/> And blue-black beetles transact business,<br/> And gnats fly in a host,<br/> And furry caterpillars hasten<br/> That no time be lost,<br/> And moths grow fat and thrive,<br/> And ladybirds arrive.<br/> <br/> Before green apples blush,<br/> Before green nuts embrown,<br/> Why, one day in the country<br/> Is worth a month in town;<br/> Is worth a day and a year<br/> Of the dusty, musty, lag-last fashion<br/> That days drone elsewhere.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />