Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SYLVAN YEAR, by BELLE RICHARDSON HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SYLVAN YEAR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Behold the bards are sighing
Last Line: Reappear.
Subject(s): Nature; Time


BEHOLD the bards are sighing
That the sylvan year is dying—
Let her die!
Lo, for many hundred years,
On as many hundred biers,
We've seen her lie.

The bards and year both lie,
Ananias-like they try
This little game.
You may hit her with a brick,
You may pound her with a stick,
Yet all the same—

When the trees put on their green,
Then the sylvan year is queen,
Young and spry.
Like the principles of truth,
Or the wandering Jew, forsooth,
She cannot die.

Though the sobbing winter rain
Dribbles forth a sad refrain,
Yet what of that?
The sylvan year contrives
To have as many lives
As a cat.

Oh, she will live to be
The last leaf upon the tree,
This sylvan year;
And with the insect-powder man
And the patent motor fan,
Reappear.





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