Poems for July

The Bush

by James Lister Cuthbertson

Give us from dawn to dark

Blue of Australian skies,

Let there be none to mark

Whither our pathway lies.

Give us when noontide comes

Rest in the woodland free,

Fragrant breath of the gums,

Cold, sweet scent of the sea.

Give us the wattle’s gold

And the dew-laden air,

And the loveliness bold

Loneliest landscapes wear.

These are the haunts we love,

Glad with enchanted hours,

Bright as the heavens above,

Fresh as the wild bush flowers.

In The Garden.

by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

A bird came down the walk:

He did not know I saw;

He bit an angle-worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew

From a convenient grass,

And then hopped sidewise to the wall

To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes

That hurried all abroad, —

They looked like frightened beads, I thought;

He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,

I offered him a crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers

And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or butterflies, off banks of noon,

Leap, plashless, as they swim.

A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky

by Lewis Carroll

A boat beneath a sunny sky,

Lingering onward dreamily

In an evening of July,

Children three that nestle near,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Pleased a simple tale to hear,

Long has paled that sunny sky:

Echoes fade and memories die:

Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,

Alice moving under skies

Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream,

Lingering in the golden dream,

Life, what is it but a dream?