StoryTitle("caps", "June") ?>
"June" (by James Russell Lowell, 1819-91), is a fragment from "The Vision of Sir Launfal." It finds a place in this volume because it is the most perfect description of a charming day ever written.
PoemStart() ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "What is so rare as a day in June?", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "Then, if ever, come perfect days;", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "And over it softly her warm ear lays:", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "Whether we look, or whether we listen,", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "Every clod feels a stir of might,", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "An instinct within it that reaches and towers,", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "And, groping blindly above it for light,", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "The flush of life may well be seen", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "Thrilling back over hills and valleys;", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "The cowslip startles in meadows green.", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "To be some happy creature's palace;", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "The little bird sits at his door in the sun,", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "And lets his illumined being o'errun", "") ?> PoemLine("L2", "", "With the deluge of summer it receives;", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,—", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?", "") ?>