Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Dean Howells. b. 1837812. Earliest Spring
TOSSING his mane of snows in wildest eddies and tangles, | |
Lion-like March cometh in, hoarse, with tempestuous breath, | |
Through all the moaning chimneys, and ‘thwart all the hollows and angles | |
Round the shuddering house, threating of winter and death. | |
But in my heart I feel the life of the wood and the meadow | 5 |
Thrilling the pulses that own kindred with fibres that lift | |
Bud and blade to the sunward, within the inscrutable shadow, | |
Deep in the oak’s chill core, under the gathering drift. | |
Nay, to earth’s life in mine some prescience, or dream, or desire | |
(How shall I name it aright?) comes for a moment and goes— | 10 |
Rapture of life ineffable, perfect—as if in the brier, | |
Leafless there by my door, trembled a sense of the rose. |