ITS forty in the shade to-day the spouting eaves declare; | |
The boulders nose above the drift, the southern slopes are bare; | |
Hub-deep in slush Apollos car swings north along the Zod- | |
iac. Good lack, the Spring is back, and Pan is on the road! | |
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His house is Gee & Tellus Sons,so goes his jest with men | 5 |
He sold us Zeus knows what last year; hell take us in again. | |
Disguised behind a livery-team, fur-coated, rubber-shod | |
Yet Apis from the bull-pen lowshe knows his brother God! | |
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Now down the lines of tasselled pines the yearning whispers wake | |
Pitys of old thy love behold. Come in for Hermes sake! | 10 |
How long since that so-Boston boot with reeling Mænads ran? | |
Numen adest! Let be the rest. Pipe and we pay, O Pan. | |
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(What though his phlox and hollyhocks ere half a month demised? | |
What though his ampelopsis clambered not as advertised? | |
Though every seed was guaranteed and every standard true | 15 |
Forget, forgive they did not live! Believe, and buy anew!) | |
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Now oer a careless knee he flings the painted page abroad | |
Such bloom hath never eye beheld this side the Eden Sword; | |
Such fruit Pomona marks her own, yea, Liber oversees | |
That we may reach (one dollar each) the Lost Hesperides! | 20 |
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Serene, assenting, unabashed, he writes our orders down: | |
Blue Asphodel on all our pathsa few true bays for crown | |
Uncankered bud, immortal flower, and leaves that never fall | |
Apples of Gold, of Youth, of Healthandthank you, Pan, thats all. | |
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Hes off along the drifted pent to catch the Windsor train, | 25 |
And swindle every citizen from Keene to Lake Champlain; | |
But where his goats-hoof cut the crustbeloved, look below | |
Hes left us (Ill forgive him all) the may-flower neath her snow! | |
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