And hides her cheek beneath the flowers of May.

O. W. Holmes.

SPRING.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF PETRARCH.

The soft west wind, returning, brings again

Its lovely family of herbs and flowers;

Progne’s gay notes, and Philomela’s strain

Vary the dance of spring-tide’s rosy hours;

And joyously o’er every field and plain,

Glows the bright smile that greets them from above,