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1865–1914

THE BERRIERS.

Madison Julius Cawein

Down silver precipices drawn The red-wine cataracts of dawn Pour soundless torrents wide and far, Deluging each warm, floating star.

A sound of winds and brooks and wings, Sweet woodland-fluted carolings, Star radiance dashed on moss and fern, Wet leaves that quiver, breathe, and burn;

Wet hills, hung heavily with woods, Dew-drenched and drunken solitudes Faint-murmuring elfin canticles; Sound, light, and spicy boisterous smells,

And flowers and buds; tumultuous bees, Wind-wafts and genii of the trees. Thro’ briers that trammel, one by one, With swinging pails comes laughing on

A troop of youthful berriers, Their wet feet glitt'ring where they pass Thro’ dew-drop studded tufts of grass: And oh! their cheers, their merry cheers,

Wake Echo on her shrubby rock, Whom dale and mountain answering mock With rapid fairy horns, as if Each mossy hill and weedy cliff

Had its imperial Oberon, Who, seeking his Titania hid In bloomy coverts him to shun, In kingly wrath had called and chid.

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THE BERRIERS. · Madison Julius Cawein · Poetry Cove