[ { "title": "Spring Quiet", "author": "Christina Rossetti", "lines": [ "Gone were but the Winter,", "Come were but the Spring,", "I would go to a covert", "Where the birds sing;", "", "Where in the whitethorn", "Singeth a thrush,", "And a robin sings", "In the holly-bush.", "", "Full of fresh scents", "Are the budding boughs", "Arching high over", "A cool green house:", "", "Full of sweet scents,", "And whispering air", "Which sayeth softly:", "\"We spread no snare;", "", "\"Here dwell in safety,", "Here dwell alone,", "With a clear stream", "And a mossy stone.", "", "\"Here the sun shineth", "Most shadily;", "Here is heard an echo", "Of the far sea,", "Though far off it be.\"" ], "linecount": "25" }, { "title": "The Meadows In Spring", "author": "Edward Fitzgerald", "lines": [ "'Tis a dull sight", "To see the year dying,", "When winter winds", "Set the yellow wood sighing:", "Sighing, oh! sighing.", "", "When such a time cometh,", "I do retire", "Into and old room", "Beside a bright fire:", "Oh, pile a bright fire!", "", "And there I sit", "Reading old things,", "Of knights and lorn damsels,", "While the wind sings—", "Oh, drearily sings!", "", "I never look out", "Nor attend to the blast;", "For all to be seen", "Is the leaves falling fast:", "Falling, falling!", "", "But close at the hearth,", "Like a cricket, sit I,", "Reading of summer", "And chivalry—", "Gallant chivalry!", "", "Then with an old friend", "I talk of our youth!", "How 'twas gladsome, but often", "Foolish, forsooth:", "But gladsome, gladsome!", "", "Or to get merry", "We sing some old rhyme,", "That made the wood ring again", "In summertime—", "Sweet summertime!", "", "Then go we to smoking,", "Silent and snug:", "Nought passes between us,", "Save a brown jug—", "Sometimes!", "", "And sometimes a tear", "Will rise in each eye,", "Seeing the two old friends", "So merrily—", "So merrily!", "", "And ere to bed", "Go we, go we,", "Down on the ashes", "We kneel on the knee,", "Praying together!", "", "Thus, then, live I,", "Till, 'mid all the gloom,", "By heaven! the bold sun", "Is with me in the room", "Shining, shining!", "", "Then the clouds part,", "Swallow soaring between;", "The spring is alive,", "And the meadows are green!", "", "I jump up, like mad,", "Break the old pipe in twain,", "And away to the meadows,", "The meadows again!" ], "linecount": "63" }, { "title": "The Notice that is called the Spring", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Notice that is called the Spring", "Is but a month from here --", "Put up my Heart thy Hoary work", "And take a Rosy Chair.", "", "Not any House the Flowers keep --", "The Birds enamor Care --", "Our salary the longest Day", "Is nothing but a Bier." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "The inundation of the Spring", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The inundation of the Spring", "Enlarges every soul --", "It sweeps the tenement away", "But leaves the Water whole --", "", "In which the soul at first estranged --", "Seeks faintly for its shore", "But acclimated -- pines no more", "For that Peninsula --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "A little Madness in the Spring", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "A little Madness in the Spring", "Is wholesome even for the King,", "But God be with the Clown --", "Who ponders this tremendous scene --", "This whole Experiment of Green --", "As if it were his own!" ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "I have a Bird in spring", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "I have a Bird in spring", "Which for myself doth sing --", "The spring decoys.", "And as the summer nears --", "And as the Rose appears,", "Robin is gone.", "", "Yet do I not repine", "Knowing that Bird of mine", "Though flown --", "Learneth beyond the sea", "Melody new for me", "And will return.", "", "Fast is a safer hand", "Held in a truer Land", "Are mine --", "And though they now depart,", "Tell I my doubting heart", "They're thine.", "", "In a serener Bright,", "In a more golden light", "I see", "Each little doubt and fear,", "Each little discord here", "Removed.", "", "Then will I not repine,", "Knowing that Bird of mine", "Though flown", "Shall in a distant tree", "Bright melody for me", "Return." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "A Pang is more conspicuous in Spring", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "A Pang is more conspicuous in Spring", "In contrast with the things that sing", "Not Birds entirely -- but Minds --", "Minute Effulgencies and Winds --", "When what they sung for is undone", "Who cares about a Blue Bird's Tune --", "Why, Resurrection had to wait", "Till they had moved a Stone --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Before you thought of Spring", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Before you thought of Spring", "Except as a Surmise", "You see -- God bless his suddenness --", "A Fellow in the Skies", "Of independent Hues", "A little weather worn", "Inspiriting habiliments", "Of Indigo and Brown --", "With specimens of Song", "As if for you to choose --", "Discretion in the interval", "With gay delays he goes", "To some superior Tree", "Without a single Leaf", "And shouts for joy to Nobody", "But his seraphic self --" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "I cannot meet the Spring unmoved --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "I cannot meet the Spring unmoved --", "I feel the old desire --", "A Hurry with a lingering, mixed,", "A Warrant to be fair --", "", "A Competition in my sense", "With something hid in Her --", "And as she vanishes, Remorse", "I saw no more of Her." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Spring comes on the World --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Spring comes on the World --", "I sight the Aprils --", "Hueless to me until thou come", "As, till the Bee", "Blossoms stand negative,", "Touched to Conditions", "By a Hum." ], "linecount": "7" }, { "title": "A Light exists in Spring", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "A Light exists in Spring", "Not present on the Year", "At any other period --", "When March is scarcely here", "", "A Color stands abroad", "On Solitary Fields", "That Science cannot overtake", "But Human Nature feels.", "", "It waits upon the Lawn,", "It shows the furthest Tree", "Upon the furthest Slope you know", "It almost speaks to you.", "", "Then as Horizons step", "Or Noons report away", "Without the Formula of sound", "It passes and we stay --", "", "A quality of loss", "Affecting our Content", "As Trade had suddenly encroached", "Upon a Sacrament." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Spring is the Period", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Spring is the Period", "Express from God.", "Among the other seasons", "Himself abide,", "", "But during March and April", "None stir abroad", "Without a cordial interview", "With God." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "A spring poem from bion", "author": "Eugene Field", "lines": [ "One asketh:", "\"Tell me, Myrson, tell me true:", "What's the season pleaseth you?", "Is it summer suits you best,", "When from harvest toil we rest?", "Is it autumn with its glory", "Of all surfeited desires?", "Is it winter, when with story", "And with song we hug our fires?", "Or is spring most fair to you--", "Come, good Myrson, tell me true!\"", "", "Another answereth:", "\"What the gods in wisdom send", "We should question not, my friend;", "Yet, since you entreat of me,", "I will answer reverently:", "Me the summertime displeases,", "For its sun is scorching hot;", "Autumn brings such dire diseases", "That perforce I like it not;", "As for biting winter, oh!", "How I hate its ice and snow!", "", "\"But, thrice welcome, kindly spring,", "With the myriad gifts you bring!", "Not too hot nor yet too cold,", "Graciously your charms unfold--", "Oh, your days are like the dreaming", "Of those nights which love beseems,", "And your nights have all the seeming", "Of those days of golden dreams!", "Heaven smiles down on earth, and then", "Earth smiles up to heaven again!\"" ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "Spring", "author": "Gerard Manley Hopkins", "lines": [ "Nothing is so beautiful as spring—", " When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;", " Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush", "Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring", "The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;", " The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush", " The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush", "With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.", "What is all this juice and all this joy?", " A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning", "In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy,", " Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,", "Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,", " Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Spring & Fall: To A Young Child", "author": "Gerard Manley Hopkins", "lines": [ "Margaret, are you grieving", "Over Goldengrove unleaving?", "Leaves, like the things of man, you", "With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?", "Ah! as the heart grows older", "It will come to such sights colder", "By & by, nor spare a sigh", "Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;", "And yet you wíll weep & know why.", "Now no matter, child, the name:", "Sorrow's springs are the same.", "Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed", "What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:", "It is the blight man was born for,", "It is Margaret you mourn for." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling,", "Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;", "But front their silent pipes no anthem pealing", "Startles the villages with strange alarms.", "", "Ah! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary,", "When the death-angel touches those swift keys", "What loud lament and dismal Miserere", "Will mingle with their awful symphonies", "", "I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,", "The cries of agony, the endless groan,", "Which, through the ages that have gone before us,", "In long reverberations reach our own.", "", "On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer,", "Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman's song,", "And loud, amid the universal clamor,", "O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong.", "", "I hear the Florentine, who from his palace", "Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din,", "And Aztec priests upon their teocallis", "Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin;", "", "The tumult of each sacked and burning village;", "The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns;", "The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage;", "The wail of famine in beleaguered towns;", "", "The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder,", "The rattling musketry, the clashing blade;", "And ever and anon, in tones of thunder,", "The diapason of the cannonade.", "", "Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,", "With such accursed instruments as these,", "Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,", "And jarrest the celestial harmonies?", "", "Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,", "Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,", "Given to redeem the human mind from error,", "There were no need of arsenals or forts:", "", "The warrior's name would be a name abhorred!", "And every nation, that should lift again", "Its hand against a brother, on its forehead", "Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain!", "", "Down the dark future, through long generations,", "The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;", "And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,", "I hear once more the voice of Christ say, \"Peace!\"", "", "Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals", "The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies!", "But beautiful as songs of the immortals,", "The holy melodies of love arise." ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "Song To A Fair Young Lady Going Out Of Town In The Spring", "author": "John Dryden", "lines": [ "Ask not the cause why sullen spring", " So long delays her flow'rs to bear;", "Why warbling birds forget to sing,", " And winter storms invert the year?", "Chloris is gone; and Fate provides", "To make it spring where she resides.", "", "Chloris is gone, the cruel fair;", " She cast not back a pitying eye:", "But left her lover in despair,", " To sigh, to languish, and to die:", "Ah, how can those fair eyes endure", "To give the wounds they will not cure!", "", "Great god of Love, why hast thou made", " A face that can all hearts command,", "That all religions can invade,", " And change the laws of ev'ry land?", "Where thou hadst plac'd such pow'r before,", "Thou shouldst have made her mercy more.", "", "When Chloris to the temple comes,", " Adoring crowds before her fall;", "She can restore the dead from tombs,", " And ev'ry life but mine recall.", "I only am by love design'd", "To be the victim for mankind." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "To a Blackbird and His Mate Who Died in the Spring", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For Kenton)", "", "An iron hand has stilled the throats", "That throbbed with loud and rhythmic glee", "And dammed the flood of silver notes", "That drenched the world in melody.", "The blosmy apple boughs are yearning", "For their wild choristers' returning,", "But no swift wings flash through the tree.", "Ye that were glad and fleet and strong,", "Shall Silence take you in her net?", "And shall Death quell that radiant song", "Whose echo thrills the meadow yet?", "Burst the frail web about you clinging", "And charm Death's cruel heart with singing", "Till with strange tears his eyes are wet.", "The scented morning of the year", "Is old and stale now ye are gone.", "No friendly songs the children hear", "Among the bushes on the lawn.", "When babies wander out a-Maying", "Will ye, their bards, afar be straying?", "Unhymned by you, what is the dawn?", "Nay, since ye loved ye cannot die.", "Above the stars is set your nest.", "Through Heaven's fields ye sing and fly", "And in the trees of Heaven rest.", "And little children in their dreaming", "Shall see your soft black plumage gleaming", "And smile, by your clear music blest." ], "linecount": "29" }, { "title": "The Progress of Spring", "author": "Lord Alfred Tennyson", "lines": [ "THE groundflame of the crocus breaks the mould,", "Fair Spring slides hither o'er the Southern sea,", "Wavers on her thin stem the snowdrop cold", "That trembles not to kisses of the bee:", "Come Spring, for now from all the dripping eaves", "The spear of ice has wept itself away,", "And hour by hour unfolding woodbine leaves", "O'er his uncertain shadow droops the day.", "She comes! The loosen'd rivulets run;", "The frost-bead melts upon her golden hair;", "Her mantle, slowly greening in the Sun,", "Now wraps her close, now arching leaves her bar", "To breaths of balmier air;", "", "Up leaps the lark, gone wild to welcome her,", "About her glance the tits, and shriek the jays,", "Before her skims the jubilant woodpecker,", "The linnet's bosom blushes at her gaze,", "While round her brows a woodland culver flits,", "Watching her large light eyes and gracious looks,", "And in her open palm a halcyon sits", "Patient--the secret splendour of the brooks.", "Come Spring! She comes on waste and wood,", "On farm and field: but enter also here,", "Diffuse thyself at will thro' all my blood,", "And, tho' thy violet sicken into sere,", "Lodge with me all the year!", "", "Once more a downy drift against the brakes,", "Self-darken'd in the sky, descending slow!", "But gladly see I thro' the wavering flakes", "Yon blanching apricot like snow in snow.", "These will thine eyes not brook in forest-paths,", "On their perpetual pine, nor round the beech;", "They fuse themselves to little spicy baths,", "Solved in the tender blushes of the peach;", "They lose themselves and die", "On that new life that gems the hawthorn line;", "Thy gay lent-lilies wave and put them by,", "And out once more in varnish'd glory shine", "Thy stars of celandine.", "", "She floats across the hamlet. Heaven lours,", "But in the tearful splendour of her smiles", "I see the slowl-thickening chestnut towers", "Fill out the spaces by the barren tiles.", "Now past her feet the swallow circling flies,", "A clamorous cuckoo stoops to meet her hand;", "Her light makes rainbows in my closing eyes,", "I hear a charm of song thro' all the land.", "Come, Spring! She comes, and Earth is glad", "To roll her North below thy deepening dome,", "But ere thy maiden birk be wholly clad,", "And these low bushes dip their twigs in foam,", "Make all true hearths thy home.", "", "Across my garden! and the thicket stirs,", "The fountain pulses high in sunnier jets,", "The blackcap warbles, and the turtle purrs,", "The starling claps his tiny castanets.", "Still round her forehead wheels the woodland dove,", "And scatters on her throat the sparks of dew,", "The kingcup fills her footprint, and above", "Broaden the glowing isles of vernal blue.", "Hail ample presence of a Queen,", "Bountiful, beautiful, apparell'd gay,", "Whose mantle, every shade of glancing green,", "Flies back in fragrant breezes to display", "A tunic white as May!", "", "She whispers, 'From the South I bring you balm,", "For on a tropic mountain was I born,", "While some dark dweller by the coco-palm", "Watch'd my far meadow zoned with airy morn;", "From under rose a muffled moan of floods;", "I sat beneath a solitude of snow;", "There no one came, the turf was fresh, the woods", "Plunged gulf on gulf thro' all their vales below", "I saw beyond their silent tops", "The steaming marshes of the scarlet cranes,", "The slant seas leaning oll the mangrove copse,", "And summer basking in the sultry plains", "About a land of canes;", "", "'Then from my vapour-girdle soaring forth", "I scaled the buoyant highway of the birds,", "And drank the dews and drizzle of the North,", "That I might mix with men, and hear their words", "On pathway'd plains; for--while my hand exults", "Within the bloodless heart of lowly flowers", "To work old laws of Love to fresh results,", "Thro' manifold effect of simple powers--", "I too would teach the man", "Beyond the darker hour to see the bright,", "That his fresh life may close as it began,", "The still-fulfilling promise of a light", "Narrowing the bounds of night.'", "", "So wed thee with my soul, that I may mark", "The coming year's great good and varied ills,", "And new developments, whatever spark", "Be struck from out the clash of warring wills;", "Or whether, since our nature cannot rest,", "The smoke of war's volcano burst again", "From hoary deeps that belt the changeful West,", "Old Empires, dwellings of the kings of men;", "Or should those fail, that hold the helm,", "While the long day of knowledge grows and warms,", "And in the heart of this most ancient realm", "A hateful voice be utter'd, and alarms", "Sounding 'To arms! to arms!'", "", "A simpler, saner lesson might he learn", "Who reads thy gradual process, Holy Spring.", "Thy leaves possess the season in their turn,", "And in their time thy warblers rise on wing.", "How surely glidest thou from March to May,", "And changest, breathing it, the sullen wind,", "Thy scope of operation, day by day,", "Larger and fuller, like the human mind '", "Thy warmths from bud to bud", "Accomplish that blind model in the seed,", "And men have hopes, which race the restless blood", "That after many changes may succeed", "Life, which is Life indeed." ], "linecount": "117" }, { "title": "Spring", "author": "Lord Alfred Tennyson", "lines": [ "Birds' love and birds' song", "Flying here and there,", "Birds' songand birds' love", "And you with gold for hair!", "Birds' songand birds' love", "Passing with the weather,", "Men's song and men's love,", "To love once and forever.", "", "Men's love and birds' love,", "And women's love and men's!", "And you my wren with a crown of gold,", "You my queen of the wrens!", "You the queen of the wrens --", "We'll be birds of a feather,", "I'll be King of the Queen of the wrens,", "And all in a nest together." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Nay, Lord, not thus! white lilies in the spring,", "author": "Oscar Wilde", "lines": [ "Seven stars in the still water,", "And seven in the sky;", "Seven sins on the King's daughter,", "Deep in her soul to lie.", "", "Red roses are at her feet,", "(Roses are red in her red-gold hair)", "And O where her bosom and girdle meet", "Red roses are hidden there.", "", "Fair is the knight who lieth slain", "Amid the rush and reed,", "See the lean fishes that are fain", "Upon dead men to feed.", "", "Sweet is the page that lieth there,", "(Cloth of gold is goodly prey,)", "See the black ravens in the air,", "Black, O black as the night are they.", "", "What do they there so stark and dead?", "(There is blood upon her hand)", "Why are the lilies flecked with red?", "(There is blood on the river sand.)", "", "There are two that ride from the south and east,", "And two from the north and west,", "For the black raven a goodly feast,", "For the King's daughter rest.", "", "There is one man who loves her true,", "(Red, O red, is the stain of gore!)", "He hath duggen a grave by the darksome yew,", "(One grave will do for four.)", "", "No moon in the still heaven,", "In the black water none,", "The sins on her soul are seven,", "The sin upon his is one." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "From Spring Days To Winter (For Music)", "author": "Oscar Wilde", "lines": [ "In the glad springtime when leaves were green,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "I sought, amid the tangled sheen,", "Love whom mine eyes had never seen,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "Between the blossoms red and white,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "My love first came into my sight,", "O perfect vision of delight,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "The yellow apples glowed like fire,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "O Love too great for lip or lyre,", "Blown rose of love and of desire,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "But now with snow the tree is grey,", "Ah, sadly now the throstle sings!", "My love is dead: ah! well-a-day,", "See at her silent feet I lay", "A dove with broken wings!", "Ah, Love! ah, Love! that thou wert slain -", "Fond Dove, fond Dove return again!" ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "Spring's Messengers", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "Where slanting banks are always with the sun", " The daisy is in blossom even now;", "And where warm patches by the hedges run", " The cottager when coming home from plough", "Brings home a cowslip root in flower to set.", "Thus ere the Christmas goes the spring is met", " Setting up little tents about the fields", "In sheltered spots.--Primroses when they get", " Behind the wood's old roots, where ivy shields", "Their crimpled, curdled leaves, will shine and hide.", " Cart ruts and horses' footings scarcely yield", " A slur for boys, just crizzled and that's all.", "Frost shoots his needles by the small dyke side,", " And snow in scarce a feather's seen to fall." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "538. Song—Now Spring has clad the grove in green", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "NOW spring has clad the grove in green,", " And strew’d the lea wi’ flowers;", "The furrow’d, waving corn is seen", " Rejoice in fostering showers.", "While ilka thing in nature join", " Their sorrows to forego,", "O why thus all alone are mine", " The weary steps o’ woe!", "", "", "The trout in yonder wimpling burn", " That glides, a silver dart,", "And, safe beneath the shady thorn,", " Defies the angler’s art—", "My life was ance that careless stream,", " That wanton trout was I;", "But Love, wi’ unrelenting beam,", " Has scorch’d my fountains dry.", "", "", "That little floweret’s peaceful lot,", " In yonder cliff that grows,", "Which, save the linnet’s flight, I wot,", " Nae ruder visit knows,", "Was mine, till Love has o’er me past,", " And blighted a’ my bloom;", "And now, beneath the withering blast,", " My youth and joy consume.", "", "", "The waken’d lav’rock warbling springs,", " And climbs the early sky,", "Winnowing blythe his dewy wings", " In morning’s rosy eye;", "As little reck’d I sorrow’s power,", " Until the flowery snare", "O’witching Love, in luckless hour,", " Made me the thrall o’ care.", "", "", "O had my fate been Greenland snows,", " Or Afric’s burning zone,", "Wi’man and nature leagued my foes,", " So Peggy ne’er I’d known!", "The wretch whose doom is “Hope nae mair”", " What tongue his woes can tell;", "Within whase bosom, save Despair,", " Nae kinder spirits dwell." ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "101. Song—Composed in Spring", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "AGAIN rejoicing Nature sees", " Her robe assume its vernal hues:", "Her leafy locks wave in the breeze,", " All freshly steep’d in morning dews.", "", "", " Chorus.—And maun I still on Menie doat,", " And bear the scorn that’s in her e’e?", " For it’s jet, jet black, an’ it’s like a hawk,", " An’ it winna let a body be.", "", "", "In vain to me the cowslips blaw,", " In vain to me the vi’lets spring;", "In vain to me in glen or shaw,", " The mavis and the lintwhite sing.", " And maun I still, &c.", "", "", "The merry ploughboy cheers his team,", "Wi’ joy the tentie seedsman stalks;", "But life to me’s a weary dream,", "A dream of ane that never wauks.", " And maun I still, &c.", "", "", "The wanton coot the water skims,", "Amang the reeds the ducklings cry,", "The stately swan majestic swims,", "And ev’ry thing is blest but I.", " And maun I still, &c.", "", "", "The sheep-herd steeks his faulding slap,", "And o’er the moorlands whistles shill:", "Wi’ wild, unequal, wand’ring step,", "I meet him on the dewy hill.", " And maun I still, &c.", "", "", "And when the lark, ’tween light and dark,", "Blythe waukens by the daisy’s side,", "And mounts and sings on flittering wings,", "A woe-worn ghaist I hameward glide.", " And maun I still, &c.", "", "", "Come winter, with thine angry howl,", "And raging, bend the naked tree;", "Thy gloom will soothe my cheerless soul,", "When nature all is sad like me!", " And maun I still, &c." ], "linecount": "38" }, { "title": "HOW SPRINGS CAME FIRST", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "These springs were maidens once that loved,", "But lost to that they most approved:", "My story tells, by Love they were", "Turn'd to these springs which we see here:", "The pretty whimpering that they make,", "When of the banks their leave they take,", "Tells ye but this, they are the same,", "In nothing changed but in their name." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "FAREWELL FROST, OR WELCOME SPRING", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appear", "Reclothed in fresh and verdant diaper;", "Thaw'd are the snows; and now the lusty Spring", "Gives to each mead a neat enamelling;", "The palms put forth their gems, and every tree", "Now swaggers in her leafy gallantry.", "The while the Daulian minstrel sweetly sings", "With warbling notes her Terean sufferings.", "--What gentle winds perspire! as if here", "Never had been the northern plunderer", "To strip the trees and fields, to their distress,", "Leaving them to a pitied nakedness.", "And look how when a frantic storm doth tear", "A stubborn oak or holm, long growing there,--", "But lull'd to calmness, then succeeds a breeze", "That scarcely stirs the nodding leaves of trees;", "So when this war, which tempest-like doth spoil", "Our salt, our corn, our honey, wine, and oil,", "Falls to a temper, and doth mildly cast", "His inconsiderate frenzy off, at last,", "The gentle dove may, when these turmoils cease,", "Bring in her bill, once more, the branch of Peace." ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "Flower God, God Of The Spring", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,", "Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,", "Here I wander in April", "Cold, grey-headed; and still to my", "Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,", "Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;", "Spring, flower-planter in meadows,", "Child-conductor in willowy", "Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:", "Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:", "O child, happy are children!", "She still smiles on their innocence,", "She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,", "Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:", "Thus one cunning in music", "Wakes old chords in the memory:", "Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.", "One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal", "Green - one more, and my bosom", "Feels new life with an ecstasy." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Spring Song", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "THE air was full of sun and birds,", "The fresh air sparkled clearly.", "Remembrance wakened in my heart", "And I knew I loved her dearly.", "", "The fallows and the leafless trees", "And all my spirit tingled.", "My earliest thought of love, and Spring's", "First puff of perfume mingled.", "", "In my still heart the thoughts awoke,", "Came lone by lone together -", "Say, birds and Sun and Spring, is Love", "A mere affair of weather?" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Spring Carol", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "WHEN loud by landside streamlets gush,", "And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush,", "With sun on the meadows", "And songs in the shadows", "Comes again to me", "The gift of the tongues of the lea,", "The gift of the tongues of meadows.", "", "Straightway my olden heart returns", "And dances with the dancing burns;", "It sings with the sparrows;", "To the rain and the (grimy) barrows", "Sings my heart aloud -", "To the silver-bellied cloud,", "To the silver rainy arrows.", "", "It bears the song of the skylark down,", "And it hears the singing of the town;", "And youth on the highways", "And lovers in byways", "Follows and sees:", "And hearkens the song of the leas", "And sings the songs of the highways.", "", "So when the earth is alive with gods,", "And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod,", "And the grass sings in the meadows,", "And the flowers smile in the shadows,", "Sits my heart at ease,", "Hearing the song of the leas,", "Singing the songs of the meadows." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "In The Green And Gallant Spring", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "IN the green and gallant Spring,", "Love and the lyre I thought to sing,", "And kisses sweet to give and take", "By the flowery hawthorn brake.", "", "Now is russet Autumn here,", "Death and the grave and winter drear,", "And I must ponder here aloof", "While the rain is on the roof." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "My Springs", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "In the heart of the Hills of Life, I know", "Two springs that with unbroken flow", "Forever pour their lucent streams", "Into my soul's far Lake of Dreams.", "", "Not larger than two eyes, they lie", "Beneath the many-changing sky", "And mirror all of life and time,", "-- Serene and dainty pantomime.", "", "Shot through with lights of stars and dawns,", "And shadowed sweet by ferns and fawns,", "-- Thus heaven and earth together vie", "Their shining depths to sanctify.", "", "Always when the large Form of Love", "Is hid by storms that rage above,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "Love in his very verity.", "", "Always when Faith with stifling stress", "Of grief hath died in bitterness,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "A Faith that smiles immortally.", "", "Always when Charity and Hope,", "In darkness bounden, feebly grope,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "A Light that sets my captives free.", "", "Always, when Art on perverse wing", "Flies where I cannot hear him sing,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "A charm that brings him back to me.", "", "When Labor faints, and Glory fails,", "And coy Reward in sighs exhales,", "I gaze in my two springs and see", "Attainment full and heavenly.", "", "O Love, O Wife, thine eyes are they,", "-- My springs from out whose shining gray", "Issue the sweet celestial streams", "That feed my life's bright Lake of Dreams.", "", "Oval and large and passion-pure", "And gray and wise and honor-sure;", "Soft as a dying violet-breath", "Yet calmly unafraid of death;", "", "Thronged, like two dove-cotes of gray doves,", "With wife's and mother's and poor-folk's loves,", "And home-loves and high glory-loves", "And science-loves and story-loves,", "", "And loves for all that God and man", "In art and nature make or plan,", "And lady-loves for spidery lace", "And broideries and supple grace", "", "And diamonds and the whole sweet round", "Of littles that large life compound,", "And loves for God and God's bare truth,", "And loves for Magdalen and Ruth,", "", "Dear eyes, dear eyes and rare complete --", "Being heavenly-sweet and earthly-sweet,", "-- I marvel that God made you mine,", "For when He frowns, 'tis then ye shine!" ], "linecount": "56" }, { "title": "Spring Greeting", "author": "Sidney Lanier", "lines": [ "From the German of Herder.", "", "", "", "All faintly through my soul to-day,", "As from a bell that far away", "Is tinkled by some frolic fay,", "Floateth a lovely chiming.", "Thou magic bell, to many a fell", "And many a winter-saddened dell", "Thy tongue a tale of Spring doth tell,", "Too passionate-sweet for rhyming.", "", "Chime out, thou little song of Spring,", "Float in the blue skies ravishing.", "Thy song-of-life a joy doth bring", "That's sweet, albeit fleeting.", "Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home:", "And when thou to a rose shalt come", "That hath begun to show her bloom,", "Say, I send her greeting!" ], "linecount": "17" }, { "title": "Ode On The Spring", "author": "Thomas Gray", "lines": [ "Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours,", "Fair Venus' train, appear,", "Disclose the long-expecting flowers,", "And wake the purple year!", "The Attic warbler pours her throat,", "Responsive to the cuckoo's note,", "The untaught harmony of spring:", "While, whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,", "Cool Zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky", "Their gathered fragrance fling.", "", "Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch", "A broader browner shade,", "Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech", "O'er-canopies the glade,", "Beside some water's rushy brink", "With me the Muse shall sit, and think", "(At ease reclined in rustic state)", "How vain the ardour of the Crowd,", "How low, how little are the Proud,", "How indigent the Great!", "", "Still is the toiling hand of Care;", "The panting herds repose:", "Yet hark, how through the peopled air", "The busy murmur glows!", "The insect-youth are on the wing,", "Eager to taste the honied spring", "And float amid the liquid noon:", "Some lightly o'er the current skim,", "Some show their gayly-gilded trim", "Quick-glancing to the sun.", "", "To Contemplation's sober eye", "Such is the race of Man:", "And they that creep, and they that fly,", "Shall end where they began.", "Alike the Busy and the Gay", "But flutter thro' life's little day,", "In Fortune's varying colours drest:", "Brushed by the hand of rough Mischance,", "Or chilled by Age, their airy dance", "They leave, in dust to rest.", "", "Methinks I hear, in accents low,", "The sportive kind reply:", "Poor moralist! and what art thou?", "A solitary fly!", "Thy joys no glittering female meets,", "No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets,", "No painted plumage to display:", "On hasty wings thy youth is flown;", "Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone—", "We frolic while 'tis May." ], "linecount": "50" }, { "title": "In spring and summer winds may blow", "author": "Walter Savage Landor", "lines": [ "In spring and summer winds may blow,", "And rains fall after, hard and fast;", "The tender leaves, if beaten low,", "Shine but the more for shower and blast", "", "But when their fated hour arrives,", "When reapers long have left the field,", "When maidens rifle turn'd-up hives,", "And their last juice fresh apples yield,", "", "A leaf perhaps may still remain", "Upon some solitary tree,", "Spite of the wind and of the rain . . .", "A thing you heed not if you see.", "", "At last it falls. Who cares? Not one:", "And yet no power on earth can ever", "Replace the fallen leaf upon", "Its spray, so easy to dissever.", "", "If such be love, I dare not say.", "Friendship is such, too well I know:", "I have enjoyed my summer day;", "'Tis past; my leaf now lies below." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "These, I, Singing in Spring.", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "THESE, I, singing in spring, collect for lovers,", "(For who but I should understand lovers, and all their sorrow and joy?", "And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)", "Collecting, I traverse the garden, the world—but soon I pass the gates,", "Now along the pond-side—now wading in a little, fearing not the wet,", "Now by the post-and-rail fences, where the old stones thrown there, pick’d from the", " fields,", " have accumulated,", "(Wild-flowers and vines and weeds come up through the stones, and partly cover", " them—Beyond", " these I pass,)", "Far, far in the forest, before I think where I go,", "Solitary, smelling the earthy smell, stopping now and then in the silence,", "Alone I had thought—yet soon a troop gathers around me,", "Some walk by my side, and some behind, and some embrace my arms or neck,", "They, the spirits of dear friends, dead or alive—thicker they come, a great crowd,", " and I", " in the", " middle,", "Collecting, dispensing, singing in spring, there I wander with them,", "Plucking something for tokens—tossing toward whoever is near me;", "Here! lilac, with a branch of pine,", "Here, out of my pocket, some moss which I pull’d off a live-oak in Florida, as it", " hung", " trailing", " down,", "Here, some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage,", "And here what I now draw from the water, wading in the pondside,", "(O here I last saw him that tenderly loves me—and returns again, never to separate", " from", " me,", "And this, O this shall henceforth be the token of comrades—this Calamus-root shall,", "Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!)", "And twigs of maple, and a bunch of wild orange, and chestnut,", "And stems of currants, and plum-blows, and the aromatic cedar:", "These, I, compass’d around by a thick cloud of spirits,", "Wandering, point to, or touch as I pass, or throw them loosely from me,", "Indicating to each one what he shall have—giving something to each;", "But what I drew from the water by the pond-side, that I reserve,", "I will give of it—but only to them that love, as I myself am capable of loving." ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "Spring Offensive", "author": "Wilfred Owen", "lines": [ "Halted against the shade of a last hill,", "They fed, and, lying easy, were at ease", "And, finding comfortable chests and knees", "Carelessly slept. But many there stood still", "To face the stark, blank sky beyond the ridge,", "Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.", "", "Marvelling they stood, and watched the long grass swirled", "By the May breeze, murmurous with wasp and midge,", "For though the summer oozed into their veins", "Like the injected drug for their bones' pains,", "Sharp on their souls hung the imminent line of grass,", "Fearfully flashed the sky's mysterious glass.", "", "Hour after hour they ponder the warm field --", "And the far valley behind, where the buttercups", "Had blessed with gold their slow boots coming up,", "Where even the little brambles would not yield,", "But clutched and clung to them like sorrowing hands;", "They breathe like trees unstirred.", "", "Till like a cold gust thrilled the little word", "At which each body and its soul begird", "And tighten them for battle. No alarms", "Of bugles, no high flags, no clamorous haste --", "Only a lift and flare of eyes that faced", "The sun, like a friend with whom their love is done.", "O larger shone that smile against the sun, --", "Mightier than his whose bounty these have spurned.", "", "So, soon they topped the hill, and raced together", "Over an open stretch of herb and heather", "Exposed. And instantly the whole sky burned", "With fury against them; and soft sudden cups", "Opened in thousands for their blood; and the green slopes", "Chasmed and steepened sheer to infinite space.", "", "Of them who running on that last high place", "Leapt to swift unseen bullets, or went up", "On the hot blast and fury of hell's upsurge,", "Or plunged and fell away past this world's verge,", "Some say God caught them even before they fell.", "", "But what say such as from existence' brink", "Ventured but drave too swift to sink.", "The few who rushed in the body to enter hell,", "And there out-fiending all its fiends and flames", "With superhuman inhumanities,", "Long-famous glories, immemorial shames --", "And crawling slowly back, have by degrees", "Regained cool peaceful air in wonder --", "Why speak they not of comrades that went under?" ], "linecount": "46" }, { "title": "In a Spring Grove", "author": "William Allingham", "lines": [ "Here the white-ray'd anemone is born,", "Wood-sorrel, and the varnish'd buttercup;", "And primrose in its purfled green swathed up,", "Pallid and sweet round every budding thorn,", "Gray ash, and beech with rusty leaves outworn.", "Here, too the darting linnet hath her nest", "In the blue-lustred holly, never shorn,", "Whose partner cheers her little brooding breast,", "Piping from some near bough. O simple song!", "O cistern deep of that harmonious rillet,", "And these fair juicy stems that climb and throng", "The vernal world, and unexhausted seas", "Of flowing life, and soul that asks to fill it,", "Each and all of these,--and more, and more than these!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "On a Forenoon of Spring", "author": "William Allingham", "lines": [ "I'm glad I am alive, to see and feel", "The full deliciousness of this bright day,", "That's like a heart with nothing to conceal;", "The young leaves scarcely trembling; the blue-grey", "Rimming the cloudless ether far away;", "Brairds, hedges, shadows; mountains that reveal", "Soft sapphire; this great floor of polished steel", "Spread out amidst the landmarks of the bay.", "", "I stoop in sunshine to our circling net", "From the black gunwale; tend these milky kine", "Up their rough path; sit by yon cottage-door", "Plying the diligent thread; take wings and soar--", "O hark how with the season's laureate", "Joy culminates in song! If such a song were mine!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Spring in Town", "author": "William Cullen Bryant", "lines": [ "The country ever has a lagging Spring,", "Waiting for May to call its violets forth,", "And June its roses--showers and sunshine bring,", "Slowly, the deepening verdure o'er the earth;", "To put their foliage out, the woods are slack,", "And one by one the singing-birds come back.", "", "Within the city's bounds the time of flowers", "Comes earlier. Let a mild and sunny day,", "Such as full often, for a few bright hours,", "Breathes through the sky of March the airs of May,", "Shine on our roofs and chase the wintry gloom--", "And lo! our borders glow with sudden bloom.", "", "For the wide sidewalks of Broadway are then", "Gorgeous as are a rivulet's banks in June,", "That overhung with blossoms, through its glen,", "Slides soft away beneath the sunny noon,", "And they who search the untrodden wood for flowers", "Meet in its depths no lovelier ones than ours.", "", "For here are eyes that shame the violet,", "Or the dark drop that on the pansy lies,", "And foreheads, white, as when in clusters set,", "The anemonies by forest fountains rise;", "", "And the spring-beauty boasts no tenderer streak", "Than the soft red on many a youthful cheek.", "", "And thick about those lovely temples lie", "Locks that the lucky Vignardonne has curled,", "Thrice happy man! whose trade it is to buy,", "And bake, and braid those love-knots of the world;", "Who curls of every glossy colour keepest,", "And sellest, it is said, the blackest cheapest.", "", "And well thou may'st--for Italy's brown maids", "Send the dark locks with which their brows are dressed,", "And Gascon lasses, from their jetty braids,", "Crop half, to buy a riband for the rest;", "But the fresh Norman girls their tresses spare,", "And the Dutch damsel keeps her flaxen hair.", "", "Then, henceforth, let no maid nor matron grieve,", "To see her locks of an unlovely hue,", "Frouzy or thin, for liberal art shall give", "Such piles of curls as nature never knew.", "Eve, with her veil of tresses, at the sight", "Had blushed, outdone, and owned herself a fright.", "", "Soft voices and light laughter wake the street,", "Like notes of woodbirds, and where'er the eye", "Threads the long way, plumes wave, and twinkling feet", "Fall light, as hastes that crowd of beauty by.", "The ostrich, hurrying o'er the desert space,", "Scarce bore those tossing plumes with fleeter pace.", "", "No swimming Juno gait, of languor born,", "Is theirs, but a light step of freest grace,", "Light as Camilla's o'er the unbent corn,", "A step that speaks the spirit of the place,", "Since Quiet, meek old dame, was driven away", "To Sing Sing and the shores of Tappan bay.", "", "Ye that dash by in chariots! who will care", "For steeds or footmen now? ye cannot show", "Fair face, and dazzling dress, and graceful air,", "And last edition of the shape! Ah no,", "These sights are for the earth and open sky,", "And your loud wheels unheeded rattle by." ], "linecount": "60" }, { "title": "Spring", "author": "William Morris", "lines": [ "Spring am I, too soft of heart", "Much to speak ere I depart:", "Ask the Summer-tide to prove", "The abundance of my love." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Spring and Winter ii", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "WHEN icicles hang by the wall,", " And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,", "And Tom bears logs into the hall,", " And milk comes frozen home in pail,", "When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,", "Then nightly sings the staring owl,", " To-whit!", "To-who!--a merry note,", "While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.", "", "When all aloud the wind doe blow,", " And coughing drowns the parson's saw,", "And birds sit brooding in the snow,", " And Marian's nose looks red and raw,", "When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,", "Then nightly sings the staring owl,", " To-whit!", "To-who!--a merry note,", "While greasy Joan doth keel the pot." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Spring and Winter i", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "WHEN daisies pied and violets blue,", " And lady-smocks all silver-white,", "And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue", " Do paint the meadows with delight,", "The cuckoo then, on every tree,", "Mocks married men; for thus sings he,", " Cuckoo!", "Cuckoo, cuckoo!--O word of fear,", "Unpleasing to a married ear!", "", "When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,", " And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,", "When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,", " And maidens bleach their summer smocks", "The cuckoo then, on every tree,", "Mocks married men; for thus sings he,", " Cuckoo!", "Cuckoo, cuckoo!--O word of fear,", "Unpleasing to a married ear!" ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Spring", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "When daisies pied, and violets blue,", "And lady-smocks all silver-white,", "And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue", "Do paint the meadows with delight,", "The cuckoo then, on every tree,", "Mocks married men, for thus sings he:", "'Cuckoo!", "Cuckoo, cuckoo!' O word of fear,", "Unpleasing to a married ear.", "When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,", "And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,", "When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,", "And maidens bleach their summer smocks,", "The cuckoo then, on every tree,", "Mocks married men, for thus sings he:", "'Cuckoo!", "Cuckoo, cuckoo!' O word of fear,", "Unpleasing to a married ear." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Lines Written In Early Spring", "author": "William Wordsworth", "lines": [ "I heard a thousand blended notes,", "While in a grove I sate reclined,", "In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts", "Bring sad thoughts to the mind.", "", "To her fair works did Nature link", "The human soul that through me ran;", "And much it grieved my heart to think", "What man has made of man.", "", "Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,", "The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;", "And 'tis my faith that every flower", "Enjoys the air it breathes.", "", "The birds around me hopped and played,", "Their thoughts I cannot measure:--", "But the least motion which they made", "It seemed a thrill of pleasure.", "", "The budding twigs spread out their fan,", "To catch the breezy air;", "And I must think, do all I can,", "That there was pleasure there.", "", "If this belief from heaven be sent,", "If such be Nature's holy plan,", "Have I not reason to lament", "What man has made of man?" ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Sonnet 98: From you have I been absent in the spring", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "From you have I been absent in the spring,", "When proud-pied April, dress'd in all his trim,", "Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,", "That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him.", "Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell", "Of different flowers in odour and in hue,", "Could make me any summer's story tell,", "Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:", "Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,", "Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;", "They were but sweet, but figures of delight,", "Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.", " Yet seem'd it winter still, and you away,", " As with your shadow I with these did play." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Sleep of Spring", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "O for that sweet, untroubled rest", " That poets oft have sung!--", "The babe upon its mother's breast,", " The bird upon its young,", "The heart asleep without a pain--", "When shall I know that sleep again?", "", "When shall I be as I have been", " Upon my mother's breast", "Sweet Nature's garb of verdant green", " To woo to perfect rest--", "Love in the meadow, field, and glen,", "And in my native wilds again?", "", "The sheep within the fallow field,", " The herd upon the green,", "The larks that in the thistle shield,", " And pipe from morn to e'en--", "O for the pasture, fields, and fen!", "When shall I see such rest again?", "", "I love the weeds along the fen,", " More sweet than garden flowers,", "For freedom haunts the humble glen", " That blest my happiest hours.", "Here prison injures health and me:", "I love sweet freedom and the free.", "", "The crows upon the swelling hills,", " The cows upon the lea,", "Sheep feeding by the pasture rills,", " Are ever dear to me,", "Because sweet freedom is their mate,", "While I am lone and desolate.", "", "I loved the winds when I was young,", " When life was dear to me;", "I loved the song which Nature sung,", " Endearing liberty;", "I loved the wood, the vale, the stream,", "For there my boyhood used to dream.", "", "There even toil itself was play;", " Twas pleasure een to weep;", "Twas joy to think of dreams by day,", " The beautiful of sleep.", "When shall I see the wood and plain,", "And dream those happy dreams again?" ], "linecount": "42" }, { "title": "Early Spring", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "The Spring is come, and Spring flowers coming too,", " The crocus, patty kay, the rich hearts' ease;", "The polyanthus peeps with blebs of dew,", " And daisy flowers; the buds swell on the trees;", " While oer the odd flowers swim grandfather bees", "In the old homestead rests the cottage cow;", " The dogs sit on their haunches near the pail,", "The least one to the stranger growls \"bow wow,\"", " Then hurries to the door and cocks his tail,", "To knaw the unfinished bone; the placid cow", " Looks oer the gate; the thresher's lumping flail", "Is all the noise the spring encounters now." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "To a Lady, on Being Asked My Reason for Quitting England in the Spring", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "When Man, expell'd from Eden's bowers,", " A moment linger'd near the gate,", "Each scene recall'd the vanish'd hours,", " And bade him curse his future fate.", "", "But, wandering on through distant climes,", " He learnt to bear his load of grief;", "Just gave a sigh to other times,", " And found in busier scenes relief.", "", "Thus, Lady! will it be with me,", " And I must view thy charms no more;", "For, while I linger near to thee,", " I sigh for all I knew before.", "", "In flight I shall be surely wise,", " Escaping from temptation's snare:", "I cannot view my Paradise", " Without the wish of dwelling there." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Spring", "author": "William Blake", "lines": [ " Sound the flute!", " Now it's mute!", " Bird's delight,", " Day and night,", " Nightingale,", " In the dale,", " Lark in sky,--", " Merrily,", "Merrily merrily, to welcome in the year.", "", " Little boy,", " Full of joy;", " Little girl,", " Sweet and small;", " Cock does crow,", " So do you;", " Merry voice,", " Infant noise;", "Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.", "", " Little lamb,", " Here I am;", " Come and lick", " My white neck;", " Let me pull", " Your soft wool;", " Let me kiss", " Your soft face;", "Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year." ], "linecount": "27" }, { "title": "Spring.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "THE FIRST PASTORAL, OR DAMON.", "", "TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.", "", "First in these fields I try the sylvan strains,", "Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains:", "Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring,", "While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing;", "Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play,", "And Albion's cliffs resound the rural lay.", "", "You that, too wise for pride, too good for power,", "Enjoy the glory to be great no more,", "And, carrying with you all the world can boast,", "To all the world illustriously are lost!", "Oh, let my Muse her slender reed inspire,", "Till in your native shades you tune the lyre:", "So when the nightingale to rest removes,", "The thrush may chant to the forsaken groves,", "But, charm'd to silence, listens while she sings,", "And all the aërial audience clap their wings.", "", "Soon as the flocks shook off the nightly dews,", "Two swains, whom Love kept wakeful, and the Muse,", "Pour'd o'er the whitening vale their fleecy care,", "Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair:", "The dawn now blushing on the mountain's side,", "Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephou thus replied.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "Hear how the birds, on every bloomy spray,", "With joyous music wake the dawning day!", "Why sit we mute when early linnets sing,", "When warbling Philomel salutes the spring?", "Why sit we sad, when Phosphor shines so clear,", "And lavish Nature paints the purple year?", "", "STREPHON.", "", "Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain,", "While yon slow oxen turn the furrow'd plain.", "Here the bright crocus and blue violet glow;", "Here western winds on breathing roses blow.", "I'll stake yon lamb, that near the fountain plays,", "And from the brink his dancing shade surveys.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,", "And swelling clusters bend the curling vines:", "Four Figures rising from the work appear,", "The various Seasons of the rolling year;", "And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,", "Where twelve fair signs in beauteous order lie?", "", "DAMON.", "", "Then sing by turns, by turns the Muses sing;", "Now hawthorns blossom, now the daisies spring;", "Now leaves the trees, and flowers adorn the ground:", "Begin, the vales shall every note rebound.", "", "STREPHON.", "", "Inspire me, Phoebus, in my Delia's praise,", "With Waller's strains, or Granville's moving lays!", "A milk-white bull shall at your altars stand,", "That threats a fight, and spurns the rising sand.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize,", "And make my tongue victorious as her eyes;", "No lambs or sheep for victims I'll impart,", "Thy victim, Love, shall be the shepherd's heart.", "", "STREPHON.", "", "Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain,", "Then hid in shades, eludes her eager swain;", "But feigns a laugh, to see me search around,", "And by that laugh the willing fair is found.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green,", "She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen;", "While a kind glance at her pursuer flies,", "How much at variance are her feet and eyes!", "", "STREPHON.", "", "O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow,", "And trees weep amber on the banks of Po;", "Blest Thames's shores the brightest beauties yield,", "Feed here, my lambs, I'll seek no distant field.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves;", "Diana Cynthus, Ceres Hybla loves;", "If Windsor-shades delight the matchless maid,", "Cynthus and Hybla yield to Windsor-shade.", "", "STREPHON.", "", "All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers,", "Hush'd are the birds, and closed the drooping flowers;", "If Delia smile, the flowers begin to spring,", "The skies to brighten, and the birds to sing.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "All nature laughs, the groves are fresh and fair,", "The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air;", "If Sylvia smiles, new glories gild the shore,", "And vanquish'd Nature seems to charm no more.", "", "STREPHON.", "", "In spring the fields, in autumn hills I love,", "At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,", "But Delia always; absent from her sight,", "Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "Sylvia's like autumn ripe, yet mild as May,", "More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day;", "Even spring displeases, when she shines not here;", "But, blest with her, 'tis spring throughout the year.", "", "STREPHON.", "", "Say, Daphnis, say, in what glad soil appears,", "A wondrous tree that sacred monarchs bears?", "Tell me but this, and I'll disclaim the prize,", "And give the conquest to thy Sylvia's eyes.", "", "DAPHNIS.", "", "Nay, tell me first, in what more happy fields", "The thistle springs, to which the lily yields?", "And then a nobler prize I will resign;", "For Sylvia, charming Sylvia shall be thine.", "", "DAMON.", "", "Cease to contend, for, Daphnis, I decree,", "The bowl to Strephon, and the lamb to thee:", "Blest swains, whose nymphs in every grace excel;", "Blest nymphs, whose swains those graces sing so well!", "Now rise, and haste to yonder woodbine bowers,", "A soft retreat from sudden vernal showers;", "The turf with rural dainties shall be crown'd.", "While opening blooms diffuse their sweets around.", "For see! the gath'ring flocks to shelter tend,", "And from the Pleiads fruitful showers descend." ], "linecount": "121" } ]