"The Last Message of Summer"

The Last Message of Summer

The dandelion’s last pale lamp is lit

            In lowly places where field-daisies blow.

            Over the wind-blown drifts of yarrow-snow,

In yellow clouds the wild canaries flit―

A farewell lilting thro’ their softened notes.

            High in the faint blue ether swims the sun;

            The sweet-pea pods are bursting, one by one;

The bees cling, drunken, to the poppies’ throats,

And oh! the winds are low among the ferns.

            A golden mist is sifting thro’ the pines,

            And grapes are pregnant with their stirring wines;

But in the womb of summer sleeps the spring!

            And one lark sings, where yonder maple burns―

            “Another year another hope will bring!”

"The Last Message of Summer" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).