2019-07-01

By George Meredith, 

July

I 

Blue July, bright July, 

Month of storms and gorgeous blue; 

Violet lightnings o’er thy sky, 

Heavy falls of drenching dew; 

Summer crown! o’er glen and glade 

Shrinking hyacinths in their shade; 

I welcome thee with all thy pride, 

I love thee like an Eastern bride. 

Though all the singing days are done 

As in those climes that clasp the sun; 

Though the cuckoo in his throat 

Leaves to the dove his last twin note; 

Come to me with thy lustrous eye, 

Golden-dawning oriently, 

Come with all thy shining blooms, 

Thy rich red rose and rolling glooms. 

Though the cuckoo doth but sing ‘cuk, cuk,’ 

And the dove alone doth coo; 

Though the cushat spins her coo-r-roo, r-r-roo - 

To the cuckoo’s halting ‘cuk.’ 

II 

Sweet July, warm July! 

Month when mosses near the stream, 

Soft green mosses thick and shy, 

Are a rapture and a dream. 

Summer Queen! whose foot the fern 

Fades beneath while chestnuts burn; 

I welcome thee with thy fierce love, 

Gloom below and gleam above. 

Though all the forest trees hang dumb, 

With dense leafiness o’ercome; 

Though the nightingale and thrush, 

Pipe not from the bough or bush; 

Come to me with thy lustrous eye, 

Azure-melting westerly, 

The raptures of thy face unfold, 

And welcome in thy robes of gold! 

Tho’ the nightingale broods-’sweet-chuck-sweet’ - 

And the ouzel flutes so chill, 

Tho’ the throstle gives but one shrilly trill 

To the nightingale’s ‘sweet-sweet.’ 

George Meredith (1828–1909) was an English novelist and poet and considered one of the greatest of the Victorian poets. After his wife Mary Ellen Nicolls left him, running off with famous Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Wallis (who asked Meredith to pose for one of his most famous paintings, “The Death of Chatterton”), Meredith was inspired to write one of his most famous works, a series of sonnets entitled Modern Love. The adulterous betrayal of his soon-to-be ex-wife also inspired his first novel, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.