No breezes stir the foliage
Of tree or plant;
Only at early morning
The birds sweet music chant.

Near noontide's heat, the lazy cows
Stand in the brook knee-deep,
With drowsy and half-shut eyes,
Cud-chewing, half asleep.

Boys underneath some spreading tree,
In some cool and shady nook,
Are idly fishing all day long,
By some lilied pond or brook.