Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/210

174 Of shining virgins every May,

And Summer came to ripen maids

To a beauty that not fades.

I saw the bud-crowned Spring go forth,

Stepping daily onward north

To greet staid ancient cavaliers

Filing single in stately train.

And who, and who are the travellers?

They were Night and Day, and Day and Night,

Pilgrims wight with step forthright.

I saw the Days deformed and low,

Short and bent by cold and snow;

The merry Spring threw wreaths on them,

Flower-wreaths gay with bud and bell;

Many a flower and many a gem,

They were refreshed by the smell,

They shook the snow from hats and shoon,

They put their April raiment on;

And those eternal forms,

Unhurt by a thousand storms,

Shot up to the height of the sky again,

And danced as merrily as young men.

I saw them mask their awful glance

Sidewise meek in gossamer lids;

And to speak my thought if none forbids

It was as if the eternal gods,

Tired of their starry periods,

Hid their majesty in cloth