Summer in the South 
 
  

The oriole sings in the greening grove 

As if he were half-way waiting, 

The rosebuds peep from their hoods of green, 

Timid and hesitating. 

The rain comes down in a torrent sweep 

And the nights smell warm and piney, 

The garden thrives, but the tender shoots 

Are yellow-green and tiny. 

Then a flash of sun on a waiting hill, 

Streams laugh that erst were quiet, 

The sky smiles down with a dazzling blue 

And the woods run mad with riot.

 

 

  

Today's poem is in the public domain.

 

About This Poem
Today is the first full day of summer. Summer was a topic to which Dunbar returned often, hailing it in another poem as the "time of rapture! time of song!"
Poetry by Dunbar

(Penguin Classics, 2004)

 

Poem-A-Day
Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.
June 22, 2013
Paul Laurence Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872. The child of freed slaves, Dunbar achieved national acclaim for his poetry, which appeared in periodicals ranging from The New York Times to Harper's Weekly. Dunbar died in 1906.
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