University of Virginia Library

I.

Bright hill-sides, covered thick with yellow heads
Of daffodils—a primrose here and there;
The subtle smell of spring-time in the air;
A brimstone-plumaged butterfly who speeds
On wings ecstatic through the shining meads,
As if a flying daffodil it were;
A distant prospect sweet beyond compare,
Showing the silver Thames amid its reeds:
Such was the scene that met our earnest gaze,
O Violet, when we rested on the hill,
Marking the slow departure of the haze
From valley, upland, and meandering rill,
A prospect whose pure soothing presence stays
Within me as a sunny comfort still.