Glimpses of Antiquity Being a collection of metrical sketches, in the form of ballads, lyrics, &c., with main reference to mediaeval times or classical subjects. By George F. Preston [i.e. J. B. L. Warren] |
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EARLY SPRING. |
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 | Glimpses of Antiquity |  |
48
EARLY SPRING.
Half spring, half winter, I know not which!
As a ripe sun wakes,
Where the rubied flakes
Have rifted the clouds asunder;
And bathed in his beams,
Like a palace of dreams,
Or a castle of fairy wonder,
Is the yellow-moated tower.
And flash and shadow alternately play
On lichened turret and buttress grey,
Of that ruin grim and olden;
While the waves may laugh on the shining sands,
And the wavelets play with the amber sands,
In the sun-ray pure and golden!
As a ripe sun wakes,
Where the rubied flakes
Have rifted the clouds asunder;
And bathed in his beams,
Like a palace of dreams,
Or a castle of fairy wonder,
Is the yellow-moated tower.
And flash and shadow alternately play
On lichened turret and buttress grey,
Of that ruin grim and olden;
While the waves may laugh on the shining sands,
And the wavelets play with the amber sands,
In the sun-ray pure and golden!
And our old dull sea has donned to day
the deeper blue of a Southern sky,
Unmeet, while the swallows are still away,
Keeping their winter holiday,
In lands where winter is summer!
the deeper blue of a Southern sky,
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Keeping their winter holiday,
In lands where winter is summer!
Endless summer! the whole year round,
Old Winter comes not thither—
From there we may laugh at his crispy locks,
Where icicle-crusted he sits on his rocks,
Much the worse for wind and weather.
Old Winter comes not thither—
From there we may laugh at his crispy locks,
Where icicle-crusted he sits on his rocks,
Much the worse for wind and weather.
| Glimpses of Antiquity | |