The Birds and Poets 79 



But keep me thus aquiver and awake, 

 Enamoured of my life, for living's sake ! 

 This were the tragedy that I should pass, 

 Dull and indifferent through the flowing grass. 

 And this the reason I was born, I say 

 That I might know the passion of this day I" 



And Riley adds: 



"Month a man kin railly love, 

 June, you knowj I'm talkin' of." 



i 



Longfellow has given us a fine prose description : 



"That delicious season when the coy and capricious 

 maidenhood of spring is swelling into the warmer, 

 riper and more voluptuous womanhood of summer.'* 



All Nature seems to have a glad part in the 

 preparations of the birds for their summer nesting. 

 Through the sun and showers of April and May, 

 when the birds are coming up from the south and 

 noisily and joyously mating, in anticipation of the 

 domestic life which for them is to be Nature's ful- 

 fillment, the flowers, in sweet sympathy, are grow- 

 ing into the greatest beauty and profusion. The 

 trees, shrubs and grass in the same spirit are slowly 

 robing themselves in the full vesture of summer, 

 that they may offer themselves as suitable hiding 

 places for the little bird families that are to be. 



At last when June comes, Nature seems gently 

 to whisper that she is ready. The happy, romping r 



