A Dream in June

    Summer solstice is this week and I wanted to share part of a poem by children's author and poet, Andrew Lang, which I came across very recently.
  Lang was born in Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders and in the main is known for his folk and fairy tales. The town of Selkirk itself is where renowned wordsmith Sir Walter Scott was sheriff from 1803 until 1832.
    The two border's men both have links to University of St Andrews, Andrew Lang having a series of lectures named after him and Scott being elected as the rector there which however, was rendered null later.
        I hope you enjoy it, as I did and Happy Summer Solstice to one and all.

The University of St Andrews

A Dream in June (Extract)

by Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

In twilight of the longest day

I lingered over Lucian

Till ere the dawn a dreamy way

My spirit found, untrod of man

Between the green sky and the grey

Amid the soft dusk suddenly

More light than air I seemed to sail 
Afloat upon the ocean sky 
While through the faint blue, clear and pale
I saw the mountain clouds go by 
My barque had thought for helm and sail
And one mist wreath for canopy

Like torches on a marble floor
Reflected, so the wild stars shone
Within the abysmal hyaline
Till the day widened more and more
And sank to sunset, and was gone
And then, as burning beacons shine
On summits of a mountain isle
A light to folk on sea that fare
So the sky's beacons for a while

Burned in these islands of the air
Then from a starry island set
Where one swift tide of wind there flows
Came scent of lily and violet
Narcissus, hyacinth, and rose
Laurel, and myrtle buds, and vine
So delicate is the air and fine
And forests of all fragrant trees
Sloped seaward from the central hill
And ever clamorous were these

'None rival either the popularity, or the inclusiveness, or the general merits of the twelve books of twelve colours which we owe to Andrew Lang and to his wife'

J. R. R. Tolkein