There is a month between the swath and sheaf

    JULY

    THERE is a month between the swath and sheaf 
    When grass is gone 
    And com still grassy, 

    When limes are massy 
    With hanging leaf 
    And pollen-coloured blooms whereon 
    Bees are voices we can hear, 
    So hugely dumb 
    This silent month of the attaining year. 
    The white-faced roses slowly disappear 
    From field and hedgerow, and no more flowers come : 
    Earth lies in strain of powers 
    Too terrible for flowers : 
    And would we know 

    Her burthen we must go 
    Forth from the vale, and, ere the sunstrokes slacken. 
    Stand at a moorland's edge and gaze 
    Across the hush and blaze 
    Of the clear-burning, verdant summer bracken ; 
    For in that silver flame 
    Is writ July's own name — 
    The ineffectual, numbed sweet 
    Of passion at its heat.