Explore "The Sweet o' the Year" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ I. How can I help from laughing, while / The daffodillies at me smile? / The dancing dew winks tipsily / In clusters of the lilac-tree, / And crocus' mouths and hyacinths' / Storm through the grassy labyrinths / A mirth of pearl and violet; / While roses, bud by bud, / Laugh from each dainty-lacing net / Red lips of maidenhood.
/ II. How can I help from singing when / The swallow and the hawk again / Are noisy in the hyaline / Of happy heavens, clear as wine? / The robin, lustily and shrill, / Pipes on the timber-belted hill; / And o'er the fallow skim the bold, / Mad orioles that glow / Like shining shafts of ingot gold / Shot from the morning's bow.