Four Spring Poems

LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING

William Wordsworth 1770-1859

I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sate reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

And ’tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,

Their thoughts I cannot measure:-

But the least motion which they made

It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,

To catch the breezy air;

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature’s holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has made of man?

-o0o-

SPRING QUIET

Christina Rossetti 1830-94

Gone were but the Winter,

  Come were but the Spring,

I would go to a covert

  Where the birds sing.

Where in the whitethom

  Singeth a thrush,

And a robin sings

  In the holly-bush.

Full of fresh scents

  Are the budding boughs

Arching high over

  A cool green house:

Full of sweet scents,

  And whispering air

Which sayeth softly:

  “We spread no snare;

“Here dwell in safety,

  Here dwell alone,

With a clear stream

  And a mossy stone.

“Here the sun shineth

  Most shadily;

Here is heard an echo

  Of the far sea,

  Though far off it be.”

-o0o-

IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS

William Shakespeare 1564-1616

It was a lover and his lass,

   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

That o’er the green cornfield did pass,

   In springtime, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,

   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

Those pretty country folks would lie,

   In springtime, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,

   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

How that a life was but a flower

   In springtime, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

And therefore take the present time,

   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

For love is crownèd with the prime

   In springtime, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

-o0o-

LOVELIEST OF TREES

A.E. Housman 1859-1936

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,

Twenty will not come again,

And take from seventy springs a score,

It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom

Fifty springs are little room,

About the woodlands I will go

To see the cherry hung with snow.

-o0o-