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THE LAUGHTERS: BY LOUIS UNTERMEYER
PRING!
And her hidden bugles up the street.
Spring-and the sweet
Laughter of winds at the crossing;
Laughter of birds and a fountain tossing
Its hair in abandoned ecstasies.
             Laughter 01.
Laughter of shop-girls that giggle and blush;
Laughter of the tug-boat's impertinent fife.
Laughter followed by a trembling hush-
Laughter of love, scarce whispered aloud.
Then, stilled by no sacredness or strife,
Laughter that leaps from the crowd;
Seizing the world in a rush.
Laughter of life. . .
Earth takes deep breaths like a man who had feared he might smother,
Filling his lungs before bursting into a shout ...
Windows are opened--curtains flying out;
Over the wash-lines women call to each other.
And, under the calling, there surges, too clearly to doubt,
Spring, with the noises
Of shrill, little voices;
Joining in "Tag" and the furious chase
Of "I-spy," "Red Rover" and "Prisoner's Base";
Of the roller-skates whir at the sidewalk's slope,
Of boys playing marbles and the girls skipping rope.
And there, down the avenue, behold,
The first true herald of the Spring-
The hand-organ gasping and wheezily murmuring
Its tunes ten-years old. ...
And the music, trivial and tawdry, has freshness and magical swing.
And over and under it,
During and after-
The laughter
Of Springl . . .
And lifted still
With the common thrill,
With the throbbing air, the tingling vapor,
That rose like strong and mingled wines;
I turn to my paper,
And read these lines:
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