Sara Teasdale

May Day

A delicate fabric of bird song

Floats in the air,

The smell of wet wild earth

Is everywhere.


Red small leaves of the maple

Are clenched like a hand,

Like girls at their first communion

The pear trees stand.


Oh I must pass nothing by

Without loving it much,

The raindrop try with my lips,

The grass with my touch;


For how can I be sure

I shall see again

The world on the first of May

Shining after the rain?