Saturday, June 20, 2026

Summer

by Ω.

Originally published in The Metropolitan (James Cochrane) vol.1 #3 (Jul 1831).


                She comes, she comes, with her flashing eyes,
                        And her cheek of passion's hue,
                Mid a train of aërial symphonies,
                        In her garment of cloudless blue:
                She comes with her spell upon earth and skies,
                        Over land and over sea,
                        In her warm maturity,
                                                She comes! she comes!

                Dark is her brow from the hot sun-beam,
                        Swarth child of a southern clime;
                Her march deepening radiance on valley and stream,
                        Like glory enlightening by time:
                She comes, earth exults, the hills leap at her name,
                        A thousand hearts spring,
                        A thousand vales ring—
                                                "She comes! she comes!"

                At her day-spring all breathes of that Eden bright,
                        For the Dead Sea apple given;
                She strews amber and pearl with her fingers of light,
                        From the portals of eastern heaven,
                And in chariot of purple and dew meets the night;
                        The pride of the year
                        In her golden career—
                                                She comes! she comes!

                In her sun-lit eyes let me bask again!
                        O kind is her presence to me,
                Since the east-wind blight made the blossom vain,
                        And the flower that feeds the bee;—
                While Nature is smiling o'er mountain and plain,
                        Over brook and over sea,
                        In her beauty joyously,
                                                She comes! she comes!

The Ballad of a Barber

by Aubrey Beardsley. Originally published in The Savoy (Leonard Smithers) vol. 1 # 3 (Jul 1896).                 Here is the tale of C...