A Vernal Offering - An 1849 Poem

The joyous Spring looks out and smiles. — Thomson.

By James, Kendall, N.Y.

The daisy and the violet,

Are waking in the glade, —

The merry joyous rivulet

Is singing in the shade;

There's music on the mountain,

And a song on every tree, —

And a gush from every fountain,

As it journeys to the sea.

 

The lark is singing with the breeze,

At early morn, her song of yore,

The robin mid the cherry trees,

Is flying by the kitchen door;

The waking earth looks up and smiles,

The conscious forests, joyful shout, —

From hill to dale, on every breeze,

The strains of mirth and gladness float.

 

The pattering of the April rain,

That drippeth at the casement wall,

Is sweetly chiming with the strain

Of every distant water fall :

The echo of the woodman's axe,

The laugh of many a merry boy, —

The gabble from the poultry yard,

Proclaims the universal joy.

 

O, call it not a dreary world,

Tho' winter chill the flowers of mirth,

There's many a pleasure to cheer,

The darksome hours on this bad earth;

O, call it not a joyless world,

Nor chide old winter too severe,

For Spring returns the birds and flowers,

That vanished with the dying year.

April 26, 1849. Farmer's Cabinet 47(37): 1. For the Cabinet.