NATURE AND THE POETS 



of May. It comes when the grass is short, and the 

 fresh turf sets off its " ring of gold " with admirable 

 effect ; hence we know the poet is a month or more 

 out of the season when, in "Al Fresco," he makes 

 it bloom with the buttercup and the clover: 



"The dandelions and buttercups 

 Gild all the lawn; the drowsy bee 

 Stumbles among the clover-tops, 

 And summer sweetens all but me. v 



Of course the dandelion blooms occasionally 

 throughout the whole summer, especially where the 

 grass is kept short, but its proper season, when ic 

 "gilds all the lawn," is, in every part of the coun- 

 try, some weeks earlier than the tall buttercup and 

 the clover. These bloom in June in New England 

 and New York, and are contemporaries of the daisy. 

 In the meadows and lawns, the dandelion drops its 

 flower and holds aloft its sphere of down, touching 

 the green surface as with a light frost, long before 

 the clover and the buttercup have formed their 

 buds. In " Al Fresco " our poet is literally in clover, 

 he is reveling in the height of the season, the full 

 tide of summer is sweeping around him, and he has 

 riches enough without robbing May of her dande- 

 lions. Let him say, 



"The daisies and the buttercups 

 Gild all the lawn." 

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