In The Parade Of Beauties That Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

In the parade of beauties that
On occasion in high Olympus made
March one after one
The diadems, topazes, quartzes,
All from the Orient glittering,
On their tiny feet all walking,
One after one, then next
The seasons: Winter first,
For after all the years begin
With it; then Spring the wonderful
For in it each year first
Rise from the torpor that it started
With; then Summer like a mid-day
Navel of the rising day; zenith
Of wine and song and warm carousal;
Then Autumn starts decline but gently so
For in its cool the start of all woes
Hide; the year has downward gone
Like the day that after red dusk fades.
These one after the other marched
Ordered and disciplined as in drill
Military though all beautiful.
Then after them with ruddy face
Came Ceres marching on a throne
Not golden nor silver but adorned
With hundreds of exotic fruits and
Dainties; born on the hands as
Not of slaves, but on the hands
Of thin fairies; then the Graces.
They marched too with a stately step
They too one after the other went
But close and hand to hand.
With them rustled along swift and
Silent their transparent robes
And veils made of the mists of
Summit mounts and wrought
In vales of hidden beauties brought
Between the clefts of giddying mountains
Where the snows all white into the
Heavens azure tremble and gleam.
After these came the Wild Vales
Whose sides with flowers full
Rivulets and springs ran through
The cleft below which on giant feet
The vales marched after their peers
Though higher as the oak and the
Tall fir over the lowly shrub tower.
As buffer these lofty vales noble marched.
For after them one by one, some
Solemn, some gay, some merry, some
With a look of frowning or of gloom
Came the months of each year: all
Followed each other like siblings tall
And giant in that vast parade.
First January: for it held in hand
The keys with which the year opened.
The look of January was indifferent
For being first to usher the year’s case
Impartial and all sides desired to look.
Then came February: and after him
A large sound followed other sounds
Each larger as they more approached
And the more neared: these the sounds
Of thundering and with them rustling
Of the trees blown by unleashed Zephyr
Gales wind and rain followed in train;
Yet for all this February had a face
Ruddy and red and merry all the while.
Then after came March: in his eye
There was rare intelligence that
In its eyes clear and large glistened
Noble it marched: for it were born
On this Mother Earth great noble minds
And of all months he bore with due
And greatest pride the task of carrying
Such wealth of intellect from Earth
Back to inhabitants of Mother Earth returned.