LITTLE SMOKING FLAX

TO L.E.

Dance, Little Smoking Flax!
Dance and proclaim
All thy still loveliness
Lyric as flame.

Unmute thy life-music,

Set free thy young joys
In magical phrases
Of rhythm and poise.

The passion of life
And the pageant of art

Must time to the drum-beat
That sounds in thy heart,—

With eloquent telling
Of gesture and bearing,
Each impulse revealing,

Each story declaring.

Of shimmering beryl
Thy garments shall be,
To dance with the tumult
And shine of the sea.

Under tints of the dawn,
In azure and jade,
The floor of the world
For thy dancing was laid.

Release thy enchantments,

Thine ardor unveil,
With the rapture that ran
Through the feet of Izeyl.

Bare-foot and tender,
Each step like a note

Of jubilant song
From a bobolink’s throat!

Light as an Oread
Treading the dew
In glamorous twilight

When summer is new,

Dance to the silver moon
Slim in the west,
Glad with the answering
Thrill in thy breast.

Dance with the running brook,
Run with the rain,
The wind o’er the wheat field,
The snow o’er the plain.

Dance with the sunlight

That falls through the trees
In quick golden patterns
That shift with the breeze.

Swirl with the trailing mist
Through the blue canyon,

Pan’s pipe thy music
And mirth thy companion.

Flit with the fireflies
Weaving their spell,—
Fairy lights moving

To signal all’s well.

Swing with the planets
Their sarabands slow,
In mounting Te Deums
The Seraphim know.

Through thrice-happy measures
No hesitance mars,
Ungirdle thy beauty
And dance to the stars.

Spring, Little Smoking Flax,