Featured Poem: May by James Gates Percival

It might be a Bank Holiday, but we couldn't leave you without a poem to start your week. Don't worry, we're taking some time out too, with more than a poem or two from our archive...

We've chosen a poem that's particularly appropriate for the start of the new month - let's hope there's lots of beauty and serenity ahead.

May

I feel newer life in every gale;
The winds, that fan the flowers,
And with their welcome breathings fill the sail,
Tell of serener hours--
Of hours that glide unfelt away
beneath the sky of May.
The spirit of the gentle south-wind calls
From his blue throne of air,
And where his whispering voice in music falls,
Beauty is budding there;
The bright ones of the valley break
Their slumbers, and awake.
The waving verdue rolls along the plain,
And the wide forest weaves,
To welcome back its playful mates again,
A canopy of leaves;
And from its darkening shadow floats
A gush of trembling notes.
Fairer and brighter spreads the reign of May;
The tresses of the woods
With the light dallying of the west-wind play;
And the full-brimming floods,
As gladly to their goal they run,
Hail the returning sun.

James Gates Percival