The opening Buds salute the welcome Day,
And Earth relenting, feels the genial Ray.
The Blossoms blow, the Birds on Bushes sing;
And Nature has accomplish’d all the Spring.
This was perfectly conventional and perfectly indefinite; not a single flower, bud, blossom, bird, or bush is specified. The six lines amount to a general formula for spring and would apply equally well to Patagonia, Italy, New England, or northern Siberia. Mr. R. Lewis, who wrote on “A Journey from Patapsco to Annapolis” in 1730, improves on this:
First born of Spring, here the Pacone appears.
Whose golden Root a silver Blossom rears.
In spreading Tufts see there the Crowfoot, blue,
On whose green Leaves still shines a globous Dew;
Behold the Cinque-foil, with its dazling Dye