Hot, hot glows the sunshine in laughing July.
     Scarce flutter the leaves in the soft summer sigh:
     The rooks scarcely swing on the tops of the trees,
     While river-reeds nod to the lime-scented breeze:
     A roseleaf, a-bask in the sunshiny gleam,
     Half sleeps in the dimples that chequer the stream;
     The dragon-fly hushes his day-dreamy lay,
     The silver trout sulks in his sedge-shaded bay—
While our thoughts sweetly run in a soft singing rhyme,
As we lazily loiter in strawberry time!

     Sweet, sweet is the scent of the newly-mown hay,
     Light borne by the breeze on a bright summer's day;
     And cool is the sound of the musical plash,
     As bright bubbles fall in the fountain and flash.
     'Tis joy then to wander in gay golden hours,
     And dream 'mid the hues of the bright-tinted flow'rs;
     When the velvety lawn is most soft to the tread,
     And ruddy fruit hangs in the leaf-covered bed—
Then the roundest, the sweetest, the best of the prime,
Will we gather together in strawberry time!


This poem is in the public domain.