might time be honey-slow

I know midsummer's day has officially passed (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyhow!) but despite a few clouds, the weather continues to be quite glorious here in Edinburgh ...

... has all put me in mind of Leonie Adams' famous verse:


Midsummer

This starbreak is celestial air, 
Just silver; earthlight, dying amber.
Underneath an arch of pallor
Summer keeps her brightened chamber.

Bright beauty of the risen dust
And deep flood-mark of beauty pressed
Up from earth in lovely flower,
High against my lonely breast;

Thou rhythm like the changing moon’s
The catch to which the waters play,
That as they kiss moon-silver sink,—
As soon to spurn the baffled clay;

Only before the waters fall
Is Paradise shore for gaining now.
The grasses drink the berry-bright dew;
The small fruits jewel all the bough.

Heart-breaking summer beyond taste,
Ripeness and frost are soon to know;
But might such color hold the west,
And time, and time, be honey-slow!

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Leonie Adams (1899 - 1988)

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