Io! Io! Evohe O!
The wine of Spring is in the air!
With leaves of Laughter in their hair
The merry, mad, young maenads blow
Their glad pipes everywhere.
The lord of Youth his thrysus swings
Above his round and jolly head,
As riding on a heifer red,
With flowery horns and flanks, he springs
Across the river bed.
He leads a jocund company
Of prancing kids and dimpled girls,
Whose whirling arms and flying curls
And feet afire with dancing glee
Are ripe for revelry.
They follow on. Io! Io!
They leap his heifer'a back, limb-light;
Or pinch the silken sides and white
Of plump, young calves, that skipping go
To browse 'mid clover-snow.
And one, more merry than the rest,
Up-jumps and tugs and pulls him down.
She rolls with him, all free from frown
Amongst the grasses, breast to breast,
Till others join the jest.
They poke him with their pearly thumbs,
They tumble him from hand to hand.
He, dodging half the joyous band,
Nips soft in play the first who comes
And all her sweetness plumbs.
But doubled-up with mirth at last,
His hearty laugh rings blithely round.
The forest dimples at its sound
With flocks of flowers the bes hold fast;
And young birds chirrup past.
The wine of Spring is in the air!
Io! Io! Evohe O!
Drink deep! Drink long! The goblets flow
With Life, and Joy that scatters Care,
And Youth reigns everywhere.
First published in The Bulletin, 20 September 1917;
and later in
Songs of Love and Life by Zora Cross, 1917.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Old Qld Poetry
See also.
The wine of Spring is in the air!
With leaves of Laughter in their hair
The merry, mad, young maenads blow
Their glad pipes everywhere.
The lord of Youth his thrysus swings
Above his round and jolly head,
As riding on a heifer red,
With flowery horns and flanks, he springs
Across the river bed.
He leads a jocund company
Of prancing kids and dimpled girls,
Whose whirling arms and flying curls
And feet afire with dancing glee
Are ripe for revelry.
They follow on. Io! Io!
They leap his heifer'a back, limb-light;
Or pinch the silken sides and white
Of plump, young calves, that skipping go
To browse 'mid clover-snow.
And one, more merry than the rest,
Up-jumps and tugs and pulls him down.
She rolls with him, all free from frown
Amongst the grasses, breast to breast,
Till others join the jest.
They poke him with their pearly thumbs,
They tumble him from hand to hand.
He, dodging half the joyous band,
Nips soft in play the first who comes
And all her sweetness plumbs.
But doubled-up with mirth at last,
His hearty laugh rings blithely round.
The forest dimples at its sound
With flocks of flowers the bes hold fast;
And young birds chirrup past.
The wine of Spring is in the air!
Io! Io! Evohe O!
Drink deep! Drink long! The goblets flow
With Life, and Joy that scatters Care,
And Youth reigns everywhere.
First published in The Bulletin, 20 September 1917;
and later in
Songs of Love and Life by Zora Cross, 1917.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Old Qld Poetry
See also.
