On the Hill-Side
A Memory
You lay so still in the sunshine,
So still in that hot sweet hour—
That the timid things of the forest land
Came close; a butterfly lit on your hand,
Mistaking it for a flower.
You scarcely breathed in your slumber,
So dreamless it was, so deep—
While the warm air stirred in my veins like wine,
The air that had blown through a jasmine vine,
But you slept—and I let you sleep.
Credit
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 25, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.
About this Poem
“On the Hill-Side” was published in Poems of the Past & Present (Chapman and Hall, 1910).
Date Published
01/01/1910