SPRING
Spring, with that nameless [v]pathos in the air
Which dwells with all things fair—
Spring, with her golden suns and silver rain,
Is with us once again.
Out in the lonely woods, the jasmine burns
Its fragrant lamps, and turns
Into a royal court, with green festoons,
The banks of dark [v]lagoons.
In the deep heart of every forest tree,
The blood is all aglee;
And there’s a look about the leafless bowers,
As if they dreamed of flowers.
Yet still, on every side we trace the hand
Of Winter in the land,
Save where the maple reddens on the lawn,
Flushed by the season’s dawn;
Or where, like those strange [v]semblances we find
That age to childhood bind,
The elm puts on, as if in Nature’s scorn,
The brown of Autumn corn.
As yet the turf is dark, although you know
That, not a span below,
A thousand germs are groping through the gloom,
And soon will burst their tomb.
In gardens, you may note, amid the dearth,
The crocus breaking earth;
And near the snowdrop’s tender white and green,
The violet in its screen.
But many gleams and showers need must pass
Along the budding grass,
And weeks go by, before the enamored South
Shall kiss the rose’s mouth.