 | The silver bridge and other poems |  |
36
SPRING-TIDE.
The cherry-tree is clad in white
As though with clinging snow,
The peach is pink with blossoming,
The red-fringed maples glow,
And brightly on the sunnier slopes
The grass begins to grow.
As though with clinging snow,
The peach is pink with blossoming,
The red-fringed maples glow,
And brightly on the sunnier slopes
The grass begins to grow.
The climbing rose-briers teem with buds,
And flaunt their promise high;
The strawberry-blossom lifts again
Its white-and-golden eye,
And herb and weed, through damp dead leaves,
Crowd up to see the sky.
And flaunt their promise high;
The strawberry-blossom lifts again
Its white-and-golden eye,
And herb and weed, through damp dead leaves,
Crowd up to see the sky.
The grape rejects the last year's bond
Which cramped its wandering will,
The clambering vine forgets the hand
That nailed it to the sill,
And tendril, stem, and velvet leaf
Shoot upward, upward still.
Which cramped its wandering will,
The clambering vine forgets the hand
That nailed it to the sill,
And tendril, stem, and velvet leaf
Shoot upward, upward still.
37
And all the dead year's woes and wrongs,
The heat and dust and din
Of summer-time—the bitter winds
Which winter ushered in,
Are now, amid this fresh new life,
As though they had not been.
The heat and dust and din
Of summer-time—the bitter winds
Which winter ushered in,
Are now, amid this fresh new life,
As though they had not been.
How sweet to cast aside the load
Which time and sorrow bring,
The galling bonds, the outgrown ties,
The griefs which gnaw and cling,
And build a fresh and perfect life
Anew with every spring—
Which time and sorrow bring,
The galling bonds, the outgrown ties,
The griefs which gnaw and cling,
And build a fresh and perfect life
Anew with every spring—
With last year's dead leaves cast aside,
And last year's chains unbound,
To leave the husks of age and care
Behind us in the ground,
And rise into the gracious light,
With youth and gladness crowned!
And last year's chains unbound,
To leave the husks of age and care
Behind us in the ground,
And rise into the gracious light,
With youth and gladness crowned!
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