22 THE INCOMING OF SUMMER 

 These would bring luck; even now we 

 strive to find their counterpart. In the 

 cities, perhaps : youth storing the gold 

 that one day will mean happiness : towards 

 the evening of life, maybe, with sight 

 dulled to a flower and the song of the 

 swallow never heard. Sunlight is all to 

 the flowers. It distils for them their scents 

 and sweet nectars, it fashions their petals 

 and ambrosial pollen. The sun loads the 

 galleons of the airy fullness with the rain 

 drawn from the ocean, unlading its cargoes 

 upon the million wharves of the earth. 



Peeping from ivy-bowered seclusion for 

 sight of flashing hawk, a robin slips like a 

 copper oakleaf from its nest. Inside the 

 lined cup of bent and horsehair five naked 

 fledgelings lie sleeping. By the pale cuckoo 

 flowers the mother searches, capturing with 

 swift movements insects that toil among 

 the rootlets. She returns with a beakful, but 

 her children will not rouse from slumber. 

 A chirping comes from the hedge above, 



