MICHAEL FIELD.

WINDS TO-DAY ARE LARGE AND FREE.

W inds to-day are large and free, Winds to-day are westerly; From the land they seem to blow Whence the sap begins to flow And the dimpled light to spread, From the country of the dead. Ah, it is a wild, sweet land Where the coming May is planned, Where such influences throb As our frosts can never rob Of their triumph, when they bound Through the tree and from the ground. Great within me is my soul, Great to journey to its goal, To the country of the dead; For the cornel-tips are red, And a passion rich in strife Drives me toward the home of life. Oh, to keep the spring with them Who have flushed the cornel-stem, Who imagine at its source All the year’s delicious course, Then express by wind and light Something of their rapture’s height!
LET US WREATHE THE MIGHTY CUP. L et us wreathe the mighty cup, Then with song we ’ll lift it up, And, before we drain the glow Of the juice that foams below Flowers and cool leaves round the brim, Let us swell the praise of him Who is tyrant of the heart, Cupid with his flaming dart! Pride before his face is bowed, Strength and heedless beauty cowed; Underneath his fatal wings Bend discrowned the heads of kings; Maidens blanch beneath his eye And its laughing mastery; Through each land his arrows sound, By his fetters all are bound.
WHERE WINDS ABOUND. W here winds abound, And fields are hilly, Shy daffadilly Looks down on the ground. Rose cones of larch Are just beginning; Though oaks are spinning No oak-leaves in March. Spring ’s at the core, The boughs are sappy: Good to be happy So long, long before!

NORMAN GALE.

1862.