 | Studies in verse (1865) |  |
69
PALINGENESIS.
I
The sacred earth in her delightSteams under April's wheeling sun.
The kingcup spreads his amber might,
The clouds in triumph melt and run,
And nimble titlarks flock in sight.
II
And here and there a piercing bud,The herald of the costlier year,
Folds sweet the warmth within its blood,
And strengthens out each petal clear.
The flushed merle screams about the wood.
70
III
The shower is sweet upon the ground.Smooth-headed robins ruffle out
Their plumage. Spring, in every sound
Divine and sudden, sheds about
Her green dilation at a bound.
IV
The sap in old blind things is warm'd:The eager palm outruns its leaves:
The tufty birches, silver-armed,
Lie coiling on their crystal eaves:
Comes peering crocus turf-embalmed.
V
The larch blushed out at finger tips:They say love-whispers of the spring
Ran through her fibre on the lips
Of March winds, heard like falling ring
Of rain-drops down the bladed slips.
71
VI
And daffodils hold the snow-drops' room,Like amber flashes on the sea,
The treasure of the violet's gloom
Dividing with her. Can it be,
Those steady purples, aspen bloom?
VII
O glory of the dim green bough,O April floors of primrose zone:
It seems as if the gray world now
Had done for ever all her moan
Of raving winds and barren snow.
| Studies in verse (1865) | |