SUNNY NOON

The rose-trees and the barberries

Are strung with coral beads;

And fitful breezes lightly sift

The ripened poppy-seeds.

Still, heedless of the nipping frost,

Along the garden bed

The white and purple gillyflowers

Their spicy fragrance shed.

And weaving richest tapestries

Upon the lattice frame,

The woodbine laces in and out

In gold, and rose, and flame.

Along the wall the grapevines trace

Their brown and twisted frets,

And all the trailing clematis

Is hung with soft aigrettes.

Through fringes that the larches wave

The sky shows fair and blue,

And somewhere, from beneath the eaves,

I hear the pigeons coo.

The glory of the noonday sun

Pervades the dreamy air,

And the sweet heart of beauty throbs

In music everywhere.