A Dream of Summer - An 1847 Poem
By John G. Whittier.
- Bland as the morning breath of June
- The South west breezes play;
- And, through its haze, the Winter noon
- Seems warm as Summer's day.
- The snow-plumed Angel of the North
- Has dropped his icy spear;
- Again the mossy earth looks forth,
- Again the streams gush clear.
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- The fox his hill side cell forsakes
- The muskrat leaves his nook,
- The blue-bird in the meadow brakes
- Is singing with the brook.
- "Bear up, O Mother Nature!" cry
- Bird, breeze and streamlet free.
- "Our Winter voices prophesy
- Of Summer days to three!"
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- So, in those winters of the soul,
- By bitter blasts and drear
- O'erswept from Memory's frozen pole,
- Will sunny days appear.
- Reviving Hope and Faith, they show
- The soul its living powers,
- And how beneath the Winter's snow
- Lie gems of Summer flowers!
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- The Night is Mother of the Day,
- The Winter of the Spring,
- And ever upon old Decay
- The greenest mosses cling.
- Behind the cloud the starlight lurks,
- Through showers the sunbeams fall;
- For God, who loveth all His works,
- Has left His Hope with all!
May 6, 1847. New York Daily Tribune 7(23): 4. From the National Era. Also August 27, 1851 in the Grand River Times 1(8): 1.