Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/295

 ��THE LAUGHERS

Spring !

And her hidden bugles up the street.

Spring — and the sweet

Laughter of winds at the crossing ;

Laughter of birds and a fountain tossing

Its hair in abandoned ecstasies.

Laughter of trees.

Laughter of shop-girls that giggle and blush ;

Laugh of the tug-boat's impertinent fife.

Laughter followed by a trembling hush —

Laughter of love, scarce whispered aloud.

Then, stilled by no sacredness or strife,

Laughter that leaps from the crowd ;

Seizing the world in a rush.

Laughter of life. . ..

Earth takes deep breaths like a man who had feared

he might smother. Filling his lungs before bursting into a shout. . . . Windows are opened — curtains flying out ; Over the wash-lines women call to each other. And, under the calling, there surges, too clearly to

doubt,

�� �