A Four-o'clock

Ah, happy day, refuse to go!

Hang in the heavens forever so!

Forever in mid-afternoon,

Ah, happy day of happy June!

Pour out thy sunshine on the hill,

The piny wood with perfume fill,

And breathe across the singing sea

Land-scented breezes, that shall be

Sweet as the gardens that they pass,

Where children tumble in the grass!

Ah, happy day, refuse to go!

Hang in the heavens forever so!

And long not for thy blushing rest

In the soft bosom of the west,

But bid gray evening get her back

With all the stars upon her track!

Forget the dark, forget the dew,

The mystery of the midnight blue,

And only spread thy wide warm wings

While summer her enchantment flings!

Ah, happy day, refuse to go!

Hang in the heavens forever so!

Forever let thy tender mist

Lie like dissolving amethyst

Deep in the distant dales, and shed

Thy mellow glory overhead!

Yet wilt thou wander,—call the thrush,

And have the wilds and waters hush

To hear his passion-broken tune,

Ah, happy day of happy June!