Featured Poem: Summer Song by Edith Nesbit

Today's Featured Poem is 'Summer Song' by Edith Nesbit and is read by The Reader's Teaching and Learning Content Manager, Lisa.

For the month of August, all our Featured Poems will be selected from the poetry anthology, Through Corridors of Light. The poems within this anthology seek to powerfully respond to the deepest and most private thoughts that commonly preoccupy the seriously ill but are difficult for most of us to articulate or even recognise.

This anthology features on this year's The Reader Bookshelf. For more information, a link can be found here.

Summer Song

There are white moon daisies in the mist of the meadow
Where the flowered grass scatters its seeds like spray,
There are purple orchis by the wood-ways' shadow,
There are pale dog-roses by the white highway;
And the grass, the grass is tall, the grass is up for hay,
With daisies white like silver and buttercups like gold,
And it's oh! for once to play thro' the long, the lovely day,
To laugh before the year grows old!

There is silver moonlight on the breast of the river
Where the willows tremble to the kiss of night,
Where the nine tall aspens in the meadow shiver,
Shiver in the night wind that turns them white.
And the lamps, the lamps are lit, the lamps are glow-worms light,
Between the silver aspens and the west's last gold.
And it's oh! to drink delight in the lovely lonely night,
To be young before the heart grows old!

By Edith Nesbit