Farewell Frost, or Welcome Spring

1Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appear

2Reclothed in fresh and verdant diaper;

3Thaw'd are the snows; and now the lusty Spring

4Gives to each mead a neat enamelling;

5The palms put forth their gems, and every tree

6Now swaggers in her leafy gallantry.

7The while the Daulian minstrel sweetly sings

8With warbling notes her Terean sufferings.

9 — What gentle winds perspire! as if here

10Never had been the northern plunderer

11To strip the trees and fields, to their distress,

12Leaving them to a pitied nakedness.

13And look how when a frantic storm doth tear

14A stubborn oak or holm, long growing there, —

15But lull'd to calmness, then succeeds a breeze

16That scarcely stirs the nodding leaves of trees;

17So when this war, which tempest-like doth spoil

18Our salt, our corn, our honey, wine, and oil,

19Falls to a temper, and doth mildly cast

20His inconsiderate frenzy off, at last,

21The gentle dove may, when these turmoils cease,

22Bring in her bill, once more, the branch of Peace.