O month whose promise and fulfillment blend,

And burst in one! it seems the earth can store

In all her roomy house no treasure more;

Of all her wealth no farthing have to spend

On fruit, when once this stintless flowering end.

And yet no tiniest flower shall fall before

It hath made ready at its hidden core

Its tithe of seed, which we may count and tend

Till harvest. Joy of blossomed love, for thee

Seems it no fairer thing can yet have birth?

No room is left for deeper ecstasy?

Watch well if seeds grow strong, to scatter free

Germs for thy future summers on the earth.

A joy which is but joy soon comes to dearth.

—Helen Hunt Jackson.

Dark-red roses in a honeyed wind swinging,

Silk-soft hollyhock, colored like the moon;

Larks high overhead lost in light, and singing—

That’s the way of June.

Dark red roses in the warm wind falling

Velvet leaf by velvet leaf, all the breathless noon;

Far off sea waves calling, calling, calling—

That’s the way of June.

Sweet as scarlet strawberry under wet leaves hidden,

Honeyed as the damask rose, lavish as the moon,

Shedding lovely light on things forgotten, hopes forbidden—

That’s the way of June.

—Pall Mall Gazette.

Hawks in highest heaven hover,

Soar in sight of all their victims:

None can charge them with deception,

All their crimes are deeds of daring.

—Frank Bolles, “The Blue Jay.”