The Criterion/Volume 4/Number 3/Spring Ode

by Frank Stuart Flint

SPRING ODE

By F. S. FLINT

I WHITE on its branches And again!The spring has brought The double-flowering cherry To its beauty; And you too with the spring Have blossomed: And both are fruitless.

II Along the river tracks Have rearisen The daffodils and white narcissi With the golden eyes Of pheasants; Ancf shall we too, like them, Wither Down to the grass, And, unlike them, Be absent When the spring calls In the year to come?

III You can find me in the clouds, In the hills, in the winds, in the waters; You can see me in the flowers, And hear me in the songs of birds. Wherever there is beauty is your delight, And there am I for you and with you. Is there then any need of me,Of my tired and twisted face,Is my body or my mindOf use to you?When you can love me without them,—Not meBut the notion of me?When with this you can go your ways,Happy that all beautiful thingsMean your loveAnd your love means all these?