The Coming of Spring.
Grim and long he had held the land,1
But the end was come at last,2
And he sank down low in his ice-blue throne,3
And his breath came hard and fast.4
It powdered the mist upon rail and tree,5
It huddled the cattle behind the byre,6
It buried the hares in a dust of snow,7
And scorched the young ash like fire.8
‘ They have cursed me long as the bringer of woes,9
The parent of fogs and sleets ;10
Did they know that I mellowed their land for the grain,11
And killed the disease in their streets ?12
‘ But a reign that had been more mild, itself13
Was ruled by a chance of birth,14
When Æolus filled my lungs with breath15
So keen that it scathed the earth.16
‘ You may lighten the touch of my iron hand,17
You may breathe where I would blow,18
You may win more love from a thankless land19
Than Winter was born to know.20
‘ Speed on, speed on,’ and he died in a blast21
That emptied the cells of the North ;22
And then, as Hermes from the bound23
Of heaven, the boy leapt forth.24
He met on the way the whistling swans25
And the wild geese going home ;26
And laughed as he poised on his golden wings,27
For he knew that his strength was come.——28
And sunshine flashed through the cold, clear day,29
And reddened the willow’s shoot,30
And put a love-note in the song of the lark,31
And a pulse in the violet’s root.32
He chanced on a child in a woodland path,33
All quiet and still in the sleep34
That only the hungry and frozen know,35
And the boy was fain to weep.——36
His tears fell hot on the ice-bound earth,37
And the mantle that Winter had spread38
Ever grew less in the rain and the sun,39
And the corn lay green in its stead.40
So the boy sped on on his errand of love ;41
And wherever his spirit came42
The dead skies broke into shower or shine,43
But never an hour the same.44
And things that had lain in hiding long.45
Crept out to the light of day :46
The snake from the bank, the dreaming mouse47
From chambered leaves and hay.48
The mountain brook, unloosed once more,49
Went laughing to the flood,50
And ferns hung nodding, damp and green,51
Where only boulders stood.52
For, as dead embers fanned, the earth53
Glowed bright beneath his wing,54
Till a new world broke as a living flame,55
And sang in the light of Spring.56
Yes, Spring had come. Spring with its story of hope. But
even now Spring is yielding to a power fuller and higher yet, as
greater than hope is assurance.
even now Spring is yielding to a power fuller and higher yet, as
greater than hope is assurance.
And from the grass of the bankside looks up a sky-blue flower,
and seems to whisper, ‘ Summer, dear Summer, is here.’
and seems to whisper, ‘ Summer, dear Summer, is here.’
That is the speedwell’s mission.