John Hunter-Duvar (1830-1899)
Text from A Century of Canadian Sonnets.
August
O August, brown and sleepy-eyed and mellow,
Cinctured with vines and straying here and there,
And permeating all the odorous air
With an aureole of translucent yellow,--
A thridded amber mist athwart the sun;
Most lovable art thou beyond compare,
Of all thy sisters like thee there is none,
Not blushing June nor the coquettish May,
Nor April that unknowing weeps and smiles,
Nor fervid July sunning all the isles,
Nor yet the cold white months with steely hair
That wrap in shrouds to show the year is done.
Stay with us, sleepy mellow month, O stay!
Here in some garden house by some lone bay.
