Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Again it is the Vibrant May" (1918)
The bursting buds, the leafing trees,
The toying fragrance of the breeze
Call to my heart in subtlest way,
Come! come, it is a holiday!
The streamlet with unending song,
Steals soft beneath a veiling mist,
As to some sweet alluring tryst--
While I, with inner surges strong,
Find incomplete the day, and long.
Again it is the vibrant May,
The Springtime feror mocks my pain,
For I am thrall to wintry rain--
Fain would I turn my eyes away,
For love alone brings holiday.
First published in The Crisis, May 1918