A Library of Poetry and Song

wren.

A hundred thousand times I call

Shall we have, for laughter A hearty welcome on ye all ;

Freely shouted to the woods, till allthe echoes ring. This season how I love

Send the children up
This merry din on every shore -

To the high hill's top,
For winds and storms, whose sullen roar Or deep into the wood's recesses,
Forbade my steps to rove.

To woo spring's caresses.
PIERRE RONSARD (French).

See, the birds together,
In this splendid weather,

Worship God (for he is God of birds as well as
MARCH.

men);

And each feathered neighbor The cock is crowing,

Enters on his labor, The stream is flowing,

Sparrow, robin, red pole, finch, the linnet, and the The small birds twitter, The lake doth glitter,

As the year advances, The green field sleeps in the sun ;

Trees their naked branches The oldest and youngest

Clothe, and seek your pleasure in their green apAre at work with the strongest;

parel. The cattle are grazing,

Insect and wild beast Their heads never raising ;

Keep no Lent, but feast; There are forty feeding like one !

Spring breathes upon the earth, and their joy 's

increased, Like an army defeated

And the rejoicing birds break forth in one loud The snow hath retreated,

carol. And now doth fare ill On the top of the bare hill ;

Ah, come and woo the spring; The plough-boy is whooping — anon — anon ! List to the birds that sing; There's joy on the mountains;

Pluck the primroses ; pluck the violets ; There's life in the fountains ;

Pluck the daisies, Small clouds are sailing,

Sing their praises ; Blue sky prevailing;

Friendship with the flowers some noble thought The rain is over and gone !

begets.
Come forth and gather these sweet elves,
(More witching are they than the fays of old,)

Come forth and gather them yourselves ;
SONG OF SPRING.

Learn of these gentle flowers whose worth is more

than gold. Laud the first spring daisies ; Chant aloud their praises ;

Come, come into the wood; Send the children up

Pierce into the bowers To the high hill's top;

Of these gentle flowers, Tax not the strength of their young hands Which, not in solitude To increase your lands.

Dwell, but with each other keep society : Gather the primroses,

And with a simple piety, Make handfuls into posies ;

Are ready to be woven into garlands for the good. Take them to the little girls who are at work in Or, upon summer earth, mills :

To die, in virgin worth ; Pluck the violets blue,

Or to be strewn before the bride, Ah, pluck not a few !

And the bridegroom, by her side. Knowest thou what good thoughts from Heaven the violet instils ?

Come forth on Sundays ;

Come forth on Mondays ; Give the children holidays,

Come forth on any day ; (And let these be jolly days,)

Children, come forth to play :Grant freedom to the children in this joyous Worship the God of Nature in your childhood ; spring;

Worship him at your tasks with best endeavor; Better men, hereafter,

Worship him in your sports ; worship him ever;

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

SPRING.

Found, it seems, the halcyon morn
To hoar February born ;
Bending from heaven, in azure mirth,
It kissed the forehead of the earth,
And smiled upon the silent sea,
And bade the frozen streamis be free,
And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May
Strewed flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.

BEHOLD the young, the rosy Spring
Gives to the breeze her scented wing,
While virgin graces, warm with May,
Fling roses o'er her dewy way.
The murmuring billows of the deep
Have languished into silent sleep ;
And mark! the flitting sea-birds lave
Their plumes in the reflecting wave;
While cranes from hoary winter fly
To flutter in a kinder sky.
Now the genial star of day
Dissolves the murky clouds away,
And cultured field and winding stream
Are freshly glittering in his beam.

Now the earth prolitic swells
With leafy buds and flowery bells ;
Gemming shoots the olive twine;
Clusters bright festoon the vine ;
All along the branches creeping,
Through the velvet foliage peeping,
Little infant fruits we see
Nursing into luxury.

ANACREON (Greek). Translation

Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs,
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music, lest it should not find
An echo in another's mind,
While the touch of nature's art
Harmonizes heart to heart.

of THOMAS MOORE.

SPRING, THE SWEET SPRING.

SPRING, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant

king; Then bloomseach thing, then maids dance in a ring, Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo ! The palm and may make country houses gay, Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay,

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo !

Radiant Sister of the Day,
Awake! arise ! and come away!
To the wild woods and the plains,
To the pools where winter rains
Image all their roof of leaves,
Where the pine its garland weaves
Of sapless green, and ivy dun,
Round stems that never kiss the sun,
Where the lawns and pastures be
And the sand-hills of the sea,
Where the melting hoar-frost wets
The daisy-star that never sets,
And wind-flowers and violets
Which yet join not scent to hue
Crown the pale year weak and new;
When the night is left behind
In the deep east, dim and blind,
And the blue noon is over us,
And the multitudinous
Billows murmur at our feet,
Where the earth and ocean meet,
And all things seem only one
In the universal sun.

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a sunning sit,
In every street these tunes our ears do greet,
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo !

Spring! the sweet spring !

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

T. NASH.

TO AURELIA.

THE INVITATION.

Best and brightest, come away,
Fairer far than this fair day,
Which, like thee, to those in sorrow
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow
To the rough year just awake
In its cradle on the brake.
The brightest hour of unborn spring
Through the winter wandering,

SEE, the flowery spring is blown,
Let us leave the smoky town;
From the mall, and from the ring,
Every one has taken wing;
Chloe, Strephon, Corydon,
To the meadows all are gone.
What is left you worth your stay?
Come, Aurelia, come away.

Come, Aurelia, come and see
What a lodge I've dressed for thee;
But the seat you cannot see,
"T is so hid with jessamy,
With the vine that o'er the walls,
And in every window crawls;
Let us there be blithe and gay!
Come, Aurelia, come away.

Fairer and brighter spreads the reign of May;

The tresses of the woods
With the light dallying of the west-wind play ;

And the full-brimming floods,
As gladly to their goal they run,
Hail the returning sun.

JAMES GATES PERCIVAL.

Come with all thy sweetest wiles,
With thy graces and thy smiles ;

THEY COME! THE MERRY SUMMER
Come, and we will merry be,

MONTHS.
Who shall be so blest as we ?
We will frolic all the day,

They come! the merry summer months of
Haste, Aurelia, while we may :

beauty, song, and flowers ; Ay! and should not life be gay?

They come! the gladsome months that bring

thick lealiness to bowers. Yes, Aurelia, come away.

JOHN DYER. Ur, up, my heart ! and walk abroad ; fling cark

and care aside ; Seck silent hills, or rest thyself where peaceful

waters glide ; MAY MORNING.

Or, underneath the shadow vast of patriarchal

tree, Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,

Scan through its leaves the cloudless sky in rapt Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her

tranquillity.
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May! that doth inspire

The grass is soft, its velvet touch is grateful to

the hand ; Mirth and youth and warm desire ;

And, like the kiss of maiden love, the breeze is Woods and groves are of thy dressing, Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.

sweet and bland ; Thus we salute thee with our early song,

The daisy and the buttercup are nodding cour

teously ; And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

MILTON.

It stirs their blood with kindest love, to bless

and welcome thee ; And mark how with thine own thin locks

they now are silvery gray — MAY.

That blissful breeze is wantoning, and whisper

ing, “ Be gay!” I FEEL a newer life in every gale ; The winds that fan the flowers,

There is no cloud that sails along the ocean of And with their welcome breathings fill the sail,

yon sky Tell of serener hours, of hours that glide unfelt away

But hath its own winged mariners to give it

melody ; Beneath the sky of May.

Thou seest their glittering fans outspread, all

gleaming like red gold ; The spirit of the gentle south-wind calls And hark ! with shrill pipe musical, their merry From his blue throne of air,

course they hold. And where his whispering voice in music falls, God bless them all, those little ones, who, far Beauty is budding there ;

above this earth, The bright ones of the valley break

Can make a scoff of its mean joys, and vent a Their slumbers, and awake.

nobler mirth.

The waving verdure rolls along the plain,

And the wide forest weaves,
To welcome back its playful mates again,

A canopy of leaves ;
And from its darkening shadow floats
A gush of trembling notes.

But soft ! mine ear upcaught a sound, - from

yonder wood it came ! The spirit of the dim green glade did breathe his

own glad name; – Yes, it is he! the hermit bird, that, apart from

all his kind,

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A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from the Best Poets