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61
IN MEMORIAM J. W. T.
Dear Spring returns, ah! April's here,
The gay magician of the year;
With flickering smile and dewy kiss
Eager from out rough Winter's thrall
Expectant Nature to release.
The gay magician of the year;
With flickering smile and dewy kiss
Eager from out rough Winter's thrall
Expectant Nature to release.
The woods awaken to the notes
Commingling of mellifluous throats;
Where many a primrose blossom, wet
With quivering dew, salutes the morn,
Nestled by fragrant violet.
Commingling of mellifluous throats;
Where many a primrose blossom, wet
With quivering dew, salutes the morn,
Nestled by fragrant violet.
In orchards sheltered 'neath the down
The trees assume their snowy crown
Once more, once more the may-bush dons
A sunlit robe of tender green;
On the blue water sail the swans:
The trees assume their snowy crown
Once more, once more the may-bush dons
A sunlit robe of tender green;
On the blue water sail the swans:
And in yon clearing of the wood,
Seeking their loves and honied food,
Between the birchen-stems there float
Soft, saffron, psyche-wingèd sprites
To music of the first bees' note.
Seeking their loves and honied food,
Between the birchen-stems there float
Soft, saffron, psyche-wingèd sprites
To music of the first bees' note.
Nature awakes, the old Earth stirs
To youth renewed: the golden furse
Laughs on the hill-side to repeat
The young sun's golden smile: alert
Up leaps the world on airy feet.
To youth renewed: the golden furse
Laughs on the hill-side to repeat
The young sun's golden smile: alert
Up leaps the world on airy feet.
But One, but One, who loved so well
Nature's enchantments, and to tell
Her strange, mysterious beauty's tale,
From morn to dusk, from dusk to morn
Studious her secrets to unveil;
Nature's enchantments, and to tell
62
From morn to dusk, from dusk to morn
Studious her secrets to unveil;
Alas! for him, our Friend, in vain
All things their loveliness regain;
But he no more shall feel nor see,
Eager with us as heretofore,
Our Spring-tides' rare felicity.
All things their loveliness regain;
But he no more shall feel nor see,
Eager with us as heretofore,
Our Spring-tides' rare felicity.
We laid him in the earth to sleep
Through the long night that dead men keep,
Silent and senseless: still we stood
That winter's morn, and bade Farewell!
There was no more that mortal could
Through the long night that dead men keep,
Silent and senseless: still we stood
That winter's morn, and bade Farewell!
There was no more that mortal could
But leave him, dust to dust ... Ah! no;
The Spring-tide's here! Can it be so?
The keen brain and the generous heart,
Passed into idle nothingness,
Of us or ours no more a part?
The Spring-tide's here! Can it be so?
The keen brain and the generous heart,
Passed into idle nothingness,
Of us or ours no more a part?
He reads awry this April morn
The message that from earth is borne,
If from her glad renewal there springs
No fair horizon into ken,
Beyond all doom of mortal things.
The message that from earth is borne,
If from her glad renewal there springs
No fair horizon into ken,
Beyond all doom of mortal things.
Dear Friend, gone hence! we sighed Farewell!
As tears about your grave-side fell.
'Tis passed: this April morn prevail
Faith's finer promptings, and we cry,
O Spirit, in radiant freedom, Hail!
As tears about your grave-side fell.
'Tis passed: this April morn prevail
Faith's finer promptings, and we cry,
O Spirit, in radiant freedom, Hail!
March 4th-7th, 1911.
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