The West Wind

by William Cullen Bryant

Beneath the forest's skirts I rest,
    Whose branching pines rise dark and high,
And hear the breezes of the West
    Among the threaded foliage sigh.

Sweet Zephyr! why that sound of woe?
    Is not thy home among the flowers?
Do not the bright June roses blow,
    To meet thy kiss at morning hours?

And lo! thy glorious realm outspread—
    Yon stretching valleys, green and gay,
And yon free hill-tops, o'er whose head
    The loose white clouds are borne away.

And there the full broad river runs,
    And many a fount wells fresh and sweet,
To cool thee when the mid-day suns
    Have made thee faint beneath their heat.

Thou wind of joy, and youth, and love;
    Spirit of the new-wakened year!
The sun in his blue realm above
    Smooths a bright path when thou art here.

In lawns the murmuring bee is heard,
    The wooing ring-dove in the shade;
On thy soft breath, the new-fledged bird
    Takes wing, half happy, half afraid.

Ah! thou art like our wayward race;—
    When not a shade of pain or ill
Dims the bright smile of Nature's face,
    Thou lovest to sigh and murmur still.