Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Blue be the sky and soft the breeze

A poem about June

William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant

June

  • I gazed upon the glorious sky
  • And the green mountains round,
  • And thought that when I came to lie
  • At rest within the ground,
  • ’Twere pleasant, that in flowery June,
  • When brooks send up a cheerful tune,
  • And groves a joyous sound,
  • The sexton’s hand, my grave to make,
  • The rich, green mountain-turf should break.
  • A cell within the frozen mould,
  • A coffin borne through sleet,
  • And icy clods above it rolled,
  • While fierce the tempests beat —
  • Away! — I will not think of these —
  • Blue be the sky and soft the breeze,
  • Earth green beneath the feet,
  • And be the damp mould gently pressed
  • Into my narrow place of rest.
  • There through the long, long summer hours,
  • The golden light should lie,
  • And thick young herbs and groups of flowers
  • Stand in their beauty by.
  • The oriole should build and tell
  • His love-tale close beside my cell;
  • The idle butterfly
  • Should rest him there, and there be heard
  • The housewife bee and humming-bird.
  • And what if cheerful shouts at noon
  • Come, from the village sent,
  • Or songs of maids, beneath the moon
  • With fairy laughter blent?
  • And what if, in the evening light,
  • Betrothed lovers walk in sight
  • Of my low monument?
  • I would the lovely scene around
  • Might know no sadder sight nor sound.
  • I know that I no more should see
  • The season’s glorious show,
  • Nor would its brightness shine for me,
  • Nor its wild music flow;
  • But if, around my place of sleep,
  • The friends I love should come to weep,
  • They might not haste to go.
  • Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom
  • Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
  • These to their softened hearts should bear
  • The thought of what has been,
  • And speak of one who cannot share
  • The gladness of the scene;
  • Whose part, in all the pomp that fills
  • The circuit of the summer hills,
  • Is that his grave is green;
  • And deeply would their hearts rejoice
  • To hear again his living voice.

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) was an American poet of the Romantic movement, a journalist, and longtime editor of the New York Evening Post. Although often grouped with the New England poets (Emerson, Lowell, et al.), Bryant was in fact a thorough New Yorker and spent most of his literary efforts in forging a national, rather than a regional, literature. Thanks in part to his influence, the Big Apple created two of its major landmarks, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

India Hawthorne is common in coastal gardens, Citrus trees are in full bloom

The vernal equinox is on March 19
William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant

June

  • I gazed upon the glorious sky
  • And the green mountains round,
  • And thought that when I came to lie
  • At rest within the ground,
  • ’Twere pleasant, that in flowery June,
  • When brooks send up a cheerful tune,
  • And groves a joyous sound,
  • The sexton’s hand, my grave to make,
  • The rich, green mountain-turf should break.
  • A cell within the frozen mould,
  • A coffin borne through sleet,
  • And icy clods above it rolled,
  • While fierce the tempests beat —
  • Away! — I will not think of these —
  • Blue be the sky and soft the breeze,
  • Earth green beneath the feet,
  • And be the damp mould gently pressed
  • Into my narrow place of rest.
  • There through the long, long summer hours,
  • The golden light should lie,
  • And thick young herbs and groups of flowers
  • Stand in their beauty by.
  • The oriole should build and tell
  • His love-tale close beside my cell;
  • The idle butterfly
  • Should rest him there, and there be heard
  • The housewife bee and humming-bird.
  • And what if cheerful shouts at noon
  • Come, from the village sent,
  • Or songs of maids, beneath the moon
  • With fairy laughter blent?
  • And what if, in the evening light,
  • Betrothed lovers walk in sight
  • Of my low monument?
  • I would the lovely scene around
  • Might know no sadder sight nor sound.
  • I know that I no more should see
  • The season’s glorious show,
  • Nor would its brightness shine for me,
  • Nor its wild music flow;
  • But if, around my place of sleep,
  • The friends I love should come to weep,
  • They might not haste to go.
  • Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom
  • Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
  • These to their softened hearts should bear
  • The thought of what has been,
  • And speak of one who cannot share
  • The gladness of the scene;
  • Whose part, in all the pomp that fills
  • The circuit of the summer hills,
  • Is that his grave is green;
  • And deeply would their hearts rejoice
  • To hear again his living voice.

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) was an American poet of the Romantic movement, a journalist, and longtime editor of the New York Evening Post. Although often grouped with the New England poets (Emerson, Lowell, et al.), Bryant was in fact a thorough New Yorker and spent most of his literary efforts in forging a national, rather than a regional, literature. Thanks in part to his influence, the Big Apple created two of its major landmarks, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Why Unified® Review: What To Expect Dropshipping (Positive & Negative)

Next Article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.