The Ways Are Green

The ways are green with the gladdening sheen     Of the young year's fairest daughter.     O, the shadows that fleet o'er the springing wheat!     O, the magic of running water!     The spirit of spring is in every thing,     The banners of spring are streaming,     We march to a tune from the fifes of June,     And life's a dream worth dreaming.     It's all very well to sit and spell     At the lesson there's no gainsaying;     But what the deuce are wont and use     When the whole mad world's a-maying?     When the meadow glows, and the orchard snows,     And the air's with love-motes teeming,     When fancies break, and the senses wake,     O, life's a dream worth dreaming!     What Nature has writ with her lusty wit     Is worded so wisely and kindly     That whoever has dipped in her manuscript     Must up and follow her blindly.     Now the summer prime is her blithest rhyme     In the being and the seeming,     And they that have heard the overword     Know life's a dream worth dreaming.     1878