March 8.
At this season there is a sweetness in the fresh and open air, which never “comes to town.” Residents in cities, therefore, must seek it at some distance from their abodes; and those who cannot, may derive some pleasure from a sonnet, by the rural bard quoted just now.
Approach of Spring.
Sweet are the omens of approaching Spring
When gay the elder sprouts her winged leaves
When tootling robins carol-welcomes sing,
And sparrows chelp glad tidings from the eaves.
What lovely prospects wait each wakening hour,
When each new day some novelty displays,
How sweet the sun-beam melts the crocus flower,
Whose borrow’d pride shines dizen’d in his rays:
Sweet, new-laid hedges flush their tender greens:
Sweet peep the arum-leaves their shelter screens:
Ah! sweet is all that I’m denied to share:
Want’s painful hindrance sticks me to her stall;—
But still Hope’s smiles unpoint the thorns of Care
Since Heaven’s eternal spring is free from all!
Clare.