University of Virginia Library

[Month of sweet promise! her mixed tears and smiles]

Month of sweet promise! her mixed tears and smiles
Shed light and fragrance on the grateful earth;
Her very changefulness the heart beguiles,
And in the soul wakes thoughts of gladsome birth.
Sometimes she is as buoyant and as bright
As is the wood-nymph in her native bowers;
Sometimes a nun enswathed in chastened light;
Anon a very Magdalen in showers.
Yet all her moods are pleasant to our eyes,
And all her sighs are breathing of perfumes,
Lovely precursor of serener skies,
Of richer verdure, and of brighter blooms:
Behind her I behold her sister May,
Waiting to usher in her own delicious day.