THE PIPERS OF THE POOLS

Pipers of the chilly pools
Pipe the April in.
Summon all the singing hosts,
All the wilding kin.

Through the cool and teeming damp

Of the twilight air
Call till all the April children
Answer everywhere.

From your cold and fluting throats
Pipe the world awake,

Pipe the mould to move again,
Pipe the sod to break.

Pipe the mating song of earth
And the fecund fire,—
Love and laughter, pang and dream,

Desire, desire, desire.

Then a wonder shall appear,
Miracle of time:
Up through root and germ and sapwood
Life shall climb, and climb.

Then the hiding things shall hear you
And the sleeping stir,
And the far-off troops of exile
Gather to confer;

Then the rain shall kiss the bud

And the sun the bee,
Till they all, the painted children
Flower and wing get free;

And amid the shining grass
Ephemera arise,

And the windflowers in the hollow
Open starry eyes;

And delight comes in to whisper—
"Soon, soon, soon
Earth shall be but one wild blossom