THE SUMMER FOREST 



By Victor Shaw 



(Reprinted From Field and Stream) 



A spicy tangle of spruce and fir, 



A haze of green against the blue, 



With drowsy pools 'neath drooping ferns, 

 That jewel the slopes of waving grass, 



Where wild bees drone on busy wing; 

 And wood doves coo in the purple shade 



Where festooned creepers twine and cling; 

 And in the thicket and sunny glen, 



On mossy banks of chattering streams, 

 By sedgy margins of swamp and lake, 



Where golden lances gleam and shake, 

 Soft breezes whisper in velvet ears 



The timid wood folk's summer dreams. 



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