'I COME,' said the voice of the Spring,
'To banish the frost and the snow,
To dethrone hoary Winter, the king
Of cold nights and dull days-let him go!
Let him flee to the ice-belted pole,
And there with his consort, the Bear,
Let him dally till Summer's bright soul
Quits the corpse of the bloom-faded Year.'

'I come to shed light o'er the land,
To blossom the bush and the tree,
To make human spirits expand,
And hearts leap like waves in the sea!
To fling a green garb o'er the earth
And awaken the voice of the woods,
To call countless beings to birth
In the live air and life-teeming floods.

'I come to make winds from their wings
Shed the blessings of health where they blow,
To give tongues to inanimate things,
To make rivers sing psalms as they flow,
To quicken the heart-beats of Love,
To brighten the rainbow of Hope,
And to smile into joy all that move
Under Heaven's bright bliss-brooding cope.

'First, the Primrose, with petals moon-pale,
Peeping forth from the moss-mantled bank,
Shall, in spite of the wind, rain, and hail,
Spread her star of green leaves, rich and rank;
While the Daisy, blithe archer, upstarts
Like young Cupid or bold Robin Hood,
With his sun-quiver dialled with darts
That are stained with Queen Flora's heart's blood.

'While the Snowdrop looks up from the sod
On the brink of some wood-darkened dell,
Like a penitent praying to God
As he hangs o'er the abyss of Hell,
The Daffodil proudly shall wave
His flag in some rude rocky hold
Whose base silver streamlets aye lave
Whence he drinks with his goblet of gold.

'The Violet, modest and meek;
In the leaf-shrouded coppice will lie,
With a beautiful bloom on her cheek
Only rivalled by Heaven's blue eye,
Forming fancies to madden the Muse
In the mind of some lord of the lyre
Who will swear that she won her bright hues
Whence the Titan of old filched his fire.

'The Woodbine shall wind through the grove,
The Lily and Rose shall shake hands,
Like Purity meeting with Love
When at Hymen's chaste altar he stands;
The garden shall blossom and blush,
And all hues of the rainbow unfold,
Like clouds, through which sun-fountains gush,
Flaming ruby, and purple, and gold.

'The life-blood that warms my green heart
Shall embrace both the branches and roots
In the orchard, where apple-trees start
Into bright crimson buds and green shoots;
The birds shall be mated, and nest
In the shade 'neath a dome of green leaves,
Until Heaven's full blessing shall rest
On the Earth, crowned with ripe harvest-sheaves.

'Then Winter may come if he list,
For I shall not meet Death in Time's tomb,
But, while hill-tops with snow-clouds are kissed,
Shall be dreaming of beauty and bloom;
And, in spite of the frost-winds that blow,
And the ice that seals up Nature's womb,
I will burst Winter's barriers of snow
As a star cleaves Night's ocean of gloom!

'And in spite of the monarch Decay,
Who reigns o'er the children of Time,
Though I bow now and then to his sway,
I shall bate not a jot of my prime!
I will fold her fair form to my breast,
Kiss the bride my free spirit holds dear,
Lead the Earth, in her Eden-robes drest,
To the altar of Love every year!'