The ways are green with the gladdening sheen <br />Of the young year's fairest daughter. <br />O, the shadows that fleet o'er the springing wheat! <br />O, the magic of running water! <br />The spirit of spring is in every thing, <br />The banners of spring are streaming, <br />We march to a tune from the fifes of June, <br />And life's a dream worth dreaming. <br /> <br />It's all very well to sit and spell <br />At the lesson there's no gainsaying; <br />But what the deuce are wont and use <br />When the whole mad world's a-maying? <br />When the meadow glows, and the orchard snows, <br />And the air's with love-motes teeming, <br />When fancies break, and the senses wake, <br />O, life's a dream worth dreaming! <br /> <br />What Nature has writ with her lusty wit <br />Is worded so wisely and kindly <br />That whoever has dipped in her manuscript <br />Must up and follow her blindly. <br />Now the summer prime is her blithest rhyme <br />In the being and the seeming, <br />And they that have heard the overword <br />Know life's a dream worth dreaming.<br /><br />William Ernest Henley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-ways-are-green/
