MAY 



A peetweet and its mate. The river seems 

 really inhabited when the peetweet is back. This 

 bird does not return to our stream until the 

 weather is decidedly pleasant and warm. He is 

 perched on the accustomed rock. His note peoples 

 the river like the prattle of children once more in 

 the yard of a house that has stood empty. . . . 



I am surprised by the tender yellowish green of 

 the aspen leaves, just expanded suddenly, even like 

 a fire, seen in the sun agaiust the dark brown twigs 

 of the wood, though these leaflets are yet but 

 thinly dispersed. It is very enlivening. 



THOREAU : May Days. 



'Nuff sed, June's bridesman, poet o' the year, 

 Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here ; 

 Half-hid in tip-top apple-blooms he swings, 

 Or climbs aginst the breeze with quiverin' wings, 

 Or, givin' way to 't in a mock despair, 

 Runs down, a brook o' laughter, thru the air. 



LOWELL: The Biglow Papers. 



The swallows dive and chatter about the barn, 

 or squeak and build beneath the eaves ; the par- 

 tridge drums in the fresh sprouting woods ; the 

 long, tender note of the meadowlark comes up 

 from the meadow ; and at sunset, from every marsh 

 and pond come the ten thousand voices of the hylas. 

 BURROUGHS: Wake-Robin. 



