I'm glad I am alive, to see and feel The full deliciousness of this bright day, That's like a heart with nothing to conceal; The young leaves scarcely trembling; the blue-grey Rimming the cloudless ether far away; Brairds, hedges, shadows; mountains that reveal Soft sapphire; this great floor of polished steel Spread out amidst the landmarks of the bay. I stoop in sunshine to our circling net From the black gunwale; tend these milky kine Up their rough path; sit by yon cottage-door Plying the diligent thread; take wings and soar-- O hark how with the season's laureate Joy culminates in song! If such a song were mine!