A Dream of Summer (Poem)

A Dream of Summer (Poem)

Bland as the morning breath of June
The southwest breezes play;
And, through its haze, the winter noon
Seems warm as summer's day.
The snow plumed Angel of the North
Has dropped his icy spear;
Again the mossy earth looks forth,
Again the streams gush clear.

The fox his hill-side cell forsakes,
The muskrat leaves his nook,
The bluebird in the meadow brakes
Is singing with the brook.
"Bear up, oh Mother Nature!" cry
Bird, breeze, and streamlet free,
"Our winter voices prophecy
Of summer days to thee!"

So, in those winters of the soul,
By bitter blasts and drear
O'erswept from Memory's frozen pole,
Will sunny days appar.
Reviving Hope and Faith, they show
The soul its living powers,
And how beneath the winter's snow
Lie germs of summer flowers!

The Night is Mother of the Day,
The Winter of the Spring,
Ever upon old Decay
The greenest mosses cling.
Behind the cloud the star-light lurks,
Through showers the sunbeams fall
For God, who loveth all His works,
Has left His Hope with all!

John Greenleaf Whittier

The Non-Slaveholder 2:2, p. 48 (Reprinted from the National Era)

1.2.1847