Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/Another Spring
ANOTHER SPRING.
IF I might see another Spring I'd not plant summer flowers and wait; I'd have my crocuses at once, My leafless pink mezereons, My chill-veined snow-drops, choicer yet My white or azure violet, Leaf-nested primrose; anything To blow at once, not late.
If I might see another Spring I'd listen to the daylight birds That build their nests and pair and sing, Nor wait for mateless nightingale; I'd listen to the lusty herds, The ewes with lambs as white as snow, I'd find out music in the hail And all the winds that blow.
If I might see another Spring— Oh stinging comment on my past That all my past results in "if"— If I might see another Spring I'd laugh to-day, to-day is brief; I would not wait for anything: I'd use to-day that cannot last, Be glad to-day and sing.