The Poetry Corner

Spring On The Hills

By Madison Julius Cawein

Ah, shall I follow, on the hills, The Spring, as wild wings follow? Where wild-plum trees make wan the hills, Crabapple trees the hollow, Haunts of the bee and swallow? In redbud brakes and flowery Acclivities of berry; In dogwood dingles, showery With white, where wrens make merry? Or drifts of swarming cherry? In valleys of wild strawberries, And of the clumped May-apple; Or cloudlike trees of haw-berries, With which the south winds grapple, That brook and byway dapple? With eyes of far forgetfulness, Like some wild wood-thing's daughter, Whose feet are beelike fretfulness, To see her run like water Through boughs that slipped or caught her. O Spring, to seek, yet find you not! To search, yet never win you! To glimpse, to touch, but bind you not! To lose, and still continue, All sweet evasion in you! In pearly, peach-blush distances You gleam; the woods are braided Of myths; of dream-existences... There, where the brook is shaded, A sudden splendor faded. O presence, like the primrose's, Again I feel your power! With rainy scents of dim roses, Like some elusive flower, Who led me for an hour!