Matisse, “Landscape”
Here’s a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem to usher us into summer. Note how all the world awaits breathlessly—and then the sun shines and everything explodes. Enjoy:
Summer in the South
By Paul Laurence Dunbar
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 pinety,
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.