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).