Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/The Approach of Spring

The Approach of Spring.

The winter has passed with its frowns away, And the beautiful spring is coming;The children are out in the field at play, And the bees round the flowerets humming.It seems as if spring, with her balmy breath,Hath wakened all things from their sleep of death.

The trees which so lately were bleak and bare, And by mighty blasts were shaken,They seemed as an emblem of human care When by fortune's smile forsaken;But now in their glory and pride are seen,Re-clothing their branches with robes of green.

The mill-stream's no more bound in icy rest, But down through the glade is pouring;The swallow now laves in the stream his breast, And now through the air is soaring;The stream is hastening fast to the sea,So doth life hurry on to eternity.

But dismantled again will the trees be found; And the birds will again cease singing;The streams will by winter again be bound, And no more will the flowers be springing;Ought we not therefore to raise our breathIn prayer, that prepared we may be for death?

But, though the seasons again roll by To the wicked with speed appalling,And we see the emblem that all must die In the leaves which are round us falling,As in winter we hope for the spring's bright bloom,So we hope for a heaven beyond the tomb.