Sunlit Hours

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h1>THE SUNLIT HOURS</h1> <h3>BY</h3> <h2>ÉMILE VERHAEREN</h2> <h4>TRANSLATED BY</h4> <h4>CHARLES R. MURPHY</h4> <hr class="chap" /> <h3>THE SUNLIT HOURS</h3> <hr class="tb" /> <SPAN name="I"></SPAN>I<br/> <br/> <br/> O the splendour of this joy of ours,<br/> Woven of gold of the sun-lit hours!<br/> Here stands the house in soft repose,<br/> The garden and the orchard-close.<br/> Here is the bench beneath the apple trees<br/> Where lazily the blanched spring<br/> Its petals now doth fling.<br/> And here the luminous birds one sees<br/> Soaring, like presages of light,<br/> In the clear heaven of their flight.<br/> And here, as of caresses rained in showers<br/> From the lips of the higher blue,<br/> Two lovely tarns of softest hue,<br/> Bordered naively with involuntary flowers.<br/> O the splendour of our joy, for we<br/> Live doubly, in ourselves, and day's high ecstasy.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />