A DAY IN THE OPEN

Ho, a day

Whereon we may up and away,

With a fetterless wind that is out on the downs,

And there piping a call to the fallow and shore,

Where the sea evermore

Surgeth over the gray reef, and drowns

The fierce rocks with white foam;

It is ours with untired feet to roam

Where the pines in green gloom of wide vales make their murmuring home,

Or the pools that the sunlight hath kissed

Mirror back a blue sky that is winnowed of cloud and of mist!

Ho, a day

Whereon we may up and away

Through the orient distances hazy and pied,

Hand in hand with the gypsying breezes that blow

Here and there, to and fro,

O’er the meadows all rosy and wide,

Where a lyric of flowers

Is sweet-sung to the frolicking hours,

And the merry buds letter the foot—steps of tip-toeing showers;

We may climb where the steep is beset

With a turbulent waterfall, loving to clamor and fret!