Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems by the late Thomas Haynes Bayly; Edited by his Widow. With A Memoir of the Author. In Two Volumes |
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THE FORWARD SPRING. |
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 | Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems |  |
VIII. THE FORWARD SPRING.
Spring once was impatient of schooling and nursing,
And grew very fine for a season so young;
Her playthings she scorned, artificially forcing
The charms of her person, the wit of her tongue.
Her snowdrops neglecting, her roses displaying,
And singing as summer birds only should sing;
She smiled, and the world her attractions surveying,
Declared it had ne'er seen so forward a Spring!
And grew very fine for a season so young;
Her playthings she scorned, artificially forcing
The charms of her person, the wit of her tongue.
Her snowdrops neglecting, her roses displaying,
And singing as summer birds only should sing;
She smiled, and the world her attractions surveying,
Declared it had ne'er seen so forward a Spring!
But soon this same world, which is never unwilling
To lower pretensions it sanctioned in haste,
Perceived that her mornings and evenings were chilling,
And all her forced fruit was found wanting in taste.
“Alas!” cried the young year, “the charms that I boasted
If lavished too early, too early decay,
I've lost the pure pleasure of Spring, and exhausted
The green leaves that might have made Summer look gay.”
To lower pretensions it sanctioned in haste,
Perceived that her mornings and evenings were chilling,
And all her forced fruit was found wanting in taste.
“Alas!” cried the young year, “the charms that I boasted
If lavished too early, too early decay,
I've lost the pure pleasure of Spring, and exhausted
The green leaves that might have made Summer look gay.”
And now I will venture to look for a moral,
In this little song, which so simple appears;
Go childhood and play with your bells and your coral,
And sigh not for pleasures unfit for your years:
Though infancy, tutored by art prematurely,
May imitate man in look, action, and tone;
Life's Summer will not be forestall'd, and, too surely,
The charm of life's Spring-time for ever is gone!
In this little song, which so simple appears;
Go childhood and play with your bells and your coral,
And sigh not for pleasures unfit for your years:
Though infancy, tutored by art prematurely,
May imitate man in look, action, and tone;
Life's Summer will not be forestall'd, and, too surely,
The charm of life's Spring-time for ever is gone!
| Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems | |