Spring - An 1832 Seasonal Poem

By James Ayton.

"'Tis now the season when the earth upsprings

From Slumber; as a sphered angel's child,

Shadowing its eyes with green and golden wings."

Shelley.

 

Welcome, heaven descended power!

Whose spell the earth surroundeth;

My heart attests the genial hour —

Like a wave it boundeth!

 

Bride-maid of the earth and sky!

That meet with fond caresses,

Virgin of the radiant eye,

And dew-besprinkled tresses!

 

Pleasures numberless and dear

TO the world thou bringest, —

On the dead season's gloomy bier,

Fairest flowers thou flingest.

 

Thou causest o'er the sleeping earth

A still, but mighty stir —

A starting into life — a birth

From its cold sepulchre.

 

Sweetest of blooms by night dews wet,

Or courted by the gale,

The lily and the violet

Are opening in the vale.

 

To light and glorious life upsprings

The beauty hid in gloom;

The butterfly leaves on bright wings

His antenatal tomb!

 

The waterfalls are 'mong the bills,

The winds have gone to play;

And hid by leaves, the murmuring rills

Wind joyously away.

 

In the brook the trout is leaping,

O'er the tiny pebble falls —

The blue bird sings on the willow weeping

By the old garden walls.

 

Gentle Spring! what power of gladness,

Disembodied, round thee keeps,

Still to kiss the tear of sadness

From the eye of him who weeps!

 

And to teach his heart communion

With the winds and babbling springs,

'Till his spirit feels a union

With the earth's insensate things :

 

"Till mute thoughts his thanks expressing

In a flood his bosom move,

To the Power who gives the blessing,

To the source of life and love.

May 1, 1832. Salem Gazette 10(35): 4.