Summer Sorrow

What shall meadow hold to please me,

Spreading wide its scented waving,

How shall quiet mosses ease me,

Or the night-wind cool my craving?

Hill and hedgerow, cloud-sweet sky,

Echo our good-by.

Bud unplucked and leaf a-quiver,

Bird that lifts a tuneless trilling,

Restless dream of brook and river,

All June’s cup a wasted spilling—

You and I so thirsty-hearted!—

Summer knows us parted.

Credit

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 21, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“Summer Sorrow” appeared in A Canopic Jar (E. P. Dutton & Company, 1921).

Author

Leonora Speyer

Leonora Speyer was born in Washington, D.C., in 1872. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927 for her poetry collection Fiddler’s Farewell (Alfred A. Knopf, 1926)

Date Published

02/01/1921