May

Nora Hopper Chesson

1871 to 1906

Poem Image

O May is in the waters, and May is in the wind, 
She is the hope that hurries on, the fear that lags behind. 
She is the pulse that hastens the milkmaid to her lad, 
The vision long remembered, the goad that drives men mad. 
She is the growing beauty, the warmth that's in the air — 
She reddens in the mayflower, she whitens in the pear. 

Where lovers go a-trysting May's heard and is not seen,
She laughs among the lasses that romp upon the green. 
She is the soul of laughter, she is the heart of tears, 
She sows the seed of sorrow, she gathers fruit of fears. 
She sets both bud and canker to ripen with the rose- 
She has no mind to harvest, but endlessly she sows.