Poems (Spofford)/O Soft Spring Airs
O SOFT SPRING AIRS!
Come up, come up, O soft spring airs, Come from your silver shining seas,Where all day long you toss the wave About the low and palm-plumed keys!
Forsake the spicy lemon groves, The balms and blisses of the South,And blow across the longing land The breath of your delicious mouth.
Come from the almond bough you stir, The myrtle thicket where you sigh;Oh, leave the nightingale, for here The robin whistles far and nigh!
For here the violet in the wood Thrills with the fullness you shall take,And wrapped away from life and love The wild rose dreams, and fain would wake.
For here in reed and rush and grass, And tiptoe in the dusk and dew,Each sod of the brown earth aspires To meet the sun, the sun and you.
Then come, O fresh spring airs, once more Create the old delightful things,And woo the frozen world again With hints of heaven upon your wings!