The South Wind and the Sun

O The South Wind and the Sun!     How each loved the other one     Full of fancy - full folly -     Full of jollity and fun!     How they romped and ran about,     Like two boys when school is out,     With glowing face, and lisping lip,     Low laugh, and lifted shout!     And the South Wind - he was dressed     With a ribbon round his breast     That floated, flapped and fluttered     In a riotous unrest,     And a drapery of mist     From the shoulder and the wrist     Flowing backward with the motion     Of the waving hand he kissed.     And the Sun had on a crown     Wrought of gilded thistle-down,     And a scarf of velvet vapor,     And a ravelled-rainbow gown;     And his tinsel-tangled hair,     Tossed and lost upon the air,     Was glossier and flossier     Than any anywhere.     And the South Wind's eyes were two     Little dancing drops of dew,     As he puffed his cheeks, and pursed his lips,     And blew and blew and blew!     And the Sun's - like diamond-stone,     Brighter yet than ever known,     As he knit his brows and held his breath,     And shone and shone and shone!     And this pair of merry fays     Wandered through the summer days;     Arm-in-arm they went together     Over heights of morning haze -     Over slanting slopes of lawn     They went on and on and on,     Where the daisies looked like star-tracks     Trailing up and down the dawn.     And where'er they found the top     Of a wheat-stalk droop and lop     They chucked it underneath the chin     And praised the lavish crop,     Till it lifted with the pride     Of the heads it grew beside,     And then the South Wind and the Sun     Went onward satisfied.     Over meadow-lands they tripped,     Where the dandelions dipped     In crimson foam of clover-bloom,     And dripped and dripped and dripped;     And they clinched the bumble-stings,     Gauming honey on their wings,     And bundling them in lily-bells,     With maudlin murmurings.     And the humming-bird that hung     Like a jewel up among     The tilted honeysuckle-horns,     They mesmerized, and swung     In the palpitating air,     Drowsed with odors strange and rare,     And with whispered laughter, slipped away,     And left him hanging there.     And they braided blades of grass     Where the truant had to pass;     And they wriggled through the rushes     And the reeds of the morass,     Where they danced, in rapture sweet,     O'er the leaves that laid a street     Of undulant mosaic for     The touches of their feet.     By the brook with mossy brink     Where the cattle came to drink.     They trilled and piped and whistled     With the thrush and bobolink,     Till the kine in listless pause,     Switched their tails in mute applause,     With lifted heads and dreamy eyes,     And bubble-dripping jaws.     And where the melons grew,     Streaked with yellow, green and blue     These jolly sprites went wandering     Through spangled paths of dew;     And the melons, here and there,     They made love to, everywhere     Turning their pink souls to crimson     With caresses fond and fair.     Over orchard walls they went,     Where the fruited boughs were bent     Till they brushed the sward beneath them     Where the shine and shadow blent;     And the great green pear they shook     Till the sallow hue forsook     Its features, and the gleam of gold     Laughed out in every look.     And they stroked the downy cheek     Of the peach, and smoothed it sleek,     And flushed it into splendor;     And with many an elfish freak,     Gave the russet's rust a wipe -     Prankt the rambo with a stripe,     And the wine-sap blushed its reddest     As they spanked the pippins ripe.     Through the woven ambuscade     That the twining vines had made,     They found the grapes, in clusters,     Drinking up the shine and shade -     Plumpt like tiny skins of wine,     With a vintage so divine     That the tongue of fancy tingled     With the tang of muscadine.     And the golden-banded bees,     Droning o'er the flowery leas,     They bridled, reigned, and rode away     Across the fragrant breeze,     Till in hollow oak and elm     They had groomed and stabled them     In waxen stalls oozed with dews     Of rose and lily-stem.     Where the dusty highway leads,     High above the wayside weeds     They sowed the air with butterflies     Like blooming flower-seeds,     Till the dull grasshopper sprung     Half a man's height up, and hung     Tranced in the heat, with whirring wings,     And sung and sung and sung!     And they loitered, hand in hand,     Where the snipe along the sand     Of the river ran to meet them     As the ripple meets the land,     Till the dragon-fly, in light     Gauzy armor, burnished bright,     Came tilting down the waters     In a wild, bewildered flight.     And they heard the killdee's call,     And afar, the waterfall,     But the rustle of a falling leaf     They heard above it all;     And the trailing willow crept     Deeper in the tide that swept     The leafy shallop to the shore,     And wept and wept and wept!     And the fairy vessel veered     From its moorings - tacked and steered     For the centre of the current     Sailed away and disappeared:     And the burthen that it bore     From the long-enchanted shore -     "Alas! The South Wind and the Sun!"     I murmur evermore.     For the South Wind and the Sun,     Each so loves the other one,     For all his jolly folly     And frivolity and fun,     That our love for them they weigh     As their fickle fancies may,     And when at last we love them most,     They laugh and sail away.