Sedge-Warblers + 

This beauty made me dream there was a time + 

Long past and irrecoverable, a clime + 

Where any brook so radiant racing clear + 

Through buttercup and kingcup bright as brass + 

But gentle, nourishing the meadow grass + 

That leans and scurries in the wind, would bear + 

Another beauty, divine and feminine, + 

Child to the sun, a nymph whose soul unstained + 

Could love all day, and never hate or tire, + 

A lover of mortal or immortal kin. + 

And yet, rid of this dream, ere I had drained + 

Its poison, quieted was my desire + 

So that I only looked into the water, + 

Clearer than any goddess or man’s daughter, + 

And hearkened while it combed the dark green hair + 

And shook the millions of the blossoms white + 

Of water-crowfoot, and curdled to one sheet + 

The flowers fallen from the chestnuts in the park + 

Far off. And sedge-warblers, clinging so light + 

To willow twigs, sang longer than the lark, + 

Quick, shrill, or grating, a song to match the heat + 

Of the strong sun, nor less the water’s cool, + 

Gushing through narrows, swirling in the pool. + 

Their song that lacks all words, all melody, + 

All sweetness almost, was dearer then to me + 

Than sweetest voice that sings in tune sweet words. + 

This was the best of May⁠—the small brown birds + 

Wisely reiterating endlessly + 

What no man learnt yet, in or out of school. + 