The Spring

Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost

   Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost

   Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream

   Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;

   But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,

   And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth

   To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree

   The drowsy cuckoo, and the humble-bee.

   Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring

  In triumph to the world the youthful Spring.

  The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array

  Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.

  Now all things smile, only my love doth lour;

  Nor hath the scalding noonday sun the power

  To melt that marble ice, which still doth hold

  Her heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.

  The ox, which lately did for shelter fly

  Into the stall, doth now securely lie

  In open fields; and love no more is made

  By the fireside, but in the cooler shade

  Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep

  Under a sycamore, and all things keep

  Time with the season; only she doth carry

  June in her eyes, in her heart January.

NOTES

Form:

couplets

3.

Candies: forms crystals upon, like candied fruit.

6-7.

sacred birth/To the dead swallow. Swallows were

sacred to the Penates or household gods of the Romans

and it was thought unlucky to kill one. It was believed

that they did not migrate but became torpid and hibernated

in river banks until roused by the sun.

21.

Amyntas and Chloris: recurrent names in pastoral poetry.