‘June’ by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) was a Unitarian minister active in a number of social causes. He was a radical abolitionist, women’s rights campaigner and freethinker. Although he was a prolific writer, nowadays his name often comes up in connection with another, much more famous author: Emily Dickinson.

The two corresponded over several years and developed something of a mentor-student relationship. After Dickinson’s death, Higginson co-edited the first published volumes of her poetry. (See more on that in the Additional Resources section below.)

In this post, we are going to read one of his poems, titled ‘June’. You will immediately notice how different it is from any of Dickinson’s works: conventional in form, with a regular rhyme pattern and old-timey tone that has very little of Dickinson’s modernity. Which is not to say that it’s a bad poem or somehow lesser in value: it’s a wonderful ode to the first month of summer and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

As in my other poetry posts, if you scroll down you will find some vocabulary exercises intended for English language learners.

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She needs no teaching,—no defect is hers;
She stands in all her beauty ‘mid the trees,
‘Neath the tall pines her golden sunshine stirs
And shifts and trembles with each passing breeze.

All the long day upon the broad green boughs
Lieth the lustre of her lovely life,
While too much drugged with rapture to carouse
Broods her soft world of insect-being rife.

So without effort or perplexing thought
She comes to claim all homage as her own,
Clad in the richest garments Nature wrought,
Melting the strongest with her magic zone.

O wondrous June! our lives should be like thee,
With such calm grace fulfilling destiny.

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VOCABULARY EXERCISES

1.

Find the nouns in the poem with the following meaning:

• great respect and honour
• clothes
• great joy and pleasure
• charm, refinement; smooth and beautiful way of moving
• gloss, reflected light, sheen
• an imperfection, shortcoming, flaw
• a gentle, pleasant wind
• a large branch of a tree

2. 

Match the following verbs from the poem with their synonyms:

STIR | SHIFT | TREMBLE | CAROUSE | BROOD

• switch, budge, disturb
• worry, fret, languish
• drink, revel, binge
• quake, shake, shudder
• quiver, flutter, rustle

To check your answers, please click here.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

New Biography Takes ‘Heat’ Off Dickinson Editor

The Encounter That Revealed a Different Side of Emily Dickinson

The Letter That Changed Emily Dickinson’s Life

Works of T. W. Higginson available on Project Gutenberg

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IMAGE CREDIT

Cover photo by Yuriy Yosipiv on Unsplash.