A heartsome thing it is to look
At evening in your study
And find beside your favorite book
Some apples cool and ruddy,
Whose russet, yellow, brown, and red
Are memories of the richness shed
When lovely Autumn tossed her head
And from the hilltops lightly fled.
Their spicy skin, so crisp and tart,
Recalls a nook where winds have been
To flavor them with highest art
By driving dew and sunshine in,
While foaming juice and luscious meat
Suggest the fragrance of the rain
That flavored them with essence sweet
And ripened them to match the grain.
A heartsome thing it is to look
At evening in your study
And find beside your favorite book
Some apples cool and ruddy,
Whose russet, yellow, brown, and red
Are memories of the richness shed
When lovely Autumn tossed her head
And from the hilltops lightly fled.

THE BIRTH OF SPRING

1

Quick streams of little waters flow
Beneath the winter's crusty snow,
And everywhere that you may go
'Tis Spring, 'tis Spring you know!
For bubbling till they break the snow
The little waters singing go:

Chorus

“Come join the Company of Spring,
Come robins, wrens, come all and sing.
We'll make our ice-caves laugh and ring,
We'll blend our torrent-song of Spring.”

2

The gardener trims the anxious trees
And little twigs fly in the breeze;
“Come float, come float, play you're a boat,”
The waters call, “Come float.
The noisy robins' earliest note
Is bursting from his tiny throat, come float.”

Chorus