mountain strives;
  Its arms outstretched, the druid[3] wood
    Waits with its benedicite:[4]
  And to our age’s drowsy blood
    Still shouts the inspiring sea.[5] 20
  Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us,
    The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
  The priest hath his foe who comes and shrives[6] us,
    We bargain for the graves we lie in;
  At the Devil’s booth are all things sold, 25
  Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
    For a cap and bells our lives we pay,[7]
  Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking: 
    ’T is heaven alone that is given away,
  ’T is only God may be had for the asking, 30
  There is no price set on the lavish summer,
  And June may be had by the poorest comer.

  And what is so rare as a day in June? 
    Then, if ever, come perfect days;
  Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 35
    And over it softly her warm ear lays: 
  Whether we look, or whether we listen,
  We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
  Every clod feels a stir of might,
    An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 40
  And, grasping blindly above it for light,
    Climbs to a soul for grass and flowers;
  The flush of life may well be seen
    Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
  The cowslip startles in meadows green, 45
    The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
  And there’s never a leaf or a blade too mean
    To be some happy creature’s palace,
  The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
    Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 50
  And lets his illumined being o’errun
    With the deluge of summer it receives;
  His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
  And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
  He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,—­ 55
  In the nice[8] ear of nature which song is the best?

  Now is the high-tide of the year,
    And whatever of life hath ebbed away
  Comes flooding back, with a ripply cheer,
    Into every bare inlet and creek and bay; 60
  Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,
  We are happy now because God so wills it;
  No matter how barren the past may have been,
  ’Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green. 
  We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 65
  How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;
  We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing
  That skies are clear and grass is growing;
  The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
  That dandelions are blossoming near, 70
    That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
  That the river is bluer than the sky,
  That the robin is plastering his house hard by: 
  And if the breeze kept the good news back,