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| ’T WAS May! the Spring with magic bloom | |
| Leaped up from Winter’s frozen tomb. | |
| Day lit the river’s icy mail; | |
| The bland warm rain at evening sank; | |
| Ice fragments dashed in midnight’s gale; | 5 |
| The moose at morn the ripples drank. | |
| The yacht, that stood with naked mast | |
| In the locked shallows motionless | |
| When sunset fell, went curtsying past | |
| As breathed the morning’s light caress. | 10 |
| The woodman, in the forest deep, | |
| At sunrise heard with gladdening thrill, | |
| Where yester-eve was gloomy sleep, | |
| The brown rossignol’s carol shrill; | |
| Where yester-eve the snowbank spread | 15 |
| The hemlock’s twisted roots between, | |
| He saw the coltsfoot’s golden head | |
| Rising from mosses plump and green; | |
| Whilst all around were budding trees, | |
| And mellow sweetness filled the breeze. | 20 |
| A few days passed along, and brought | |
| More changes as by magic wrought. | |
| With plumes were tipped the beechen sprays; | |
| The birch long dangling tassels showed; | |
| The oak still bare, but in a blaze | 25 |
| Of gorgeous red the maple glowed; | |
| With clusters of the purest white | |
| Cherry and shadbush charmed the sight | |
| Like spots of snow the boughs among; | |
| And showers of strawberry blossoms made | 30 |
| Rich carpets in each field and glade | |
| Where day its kindliest glances flung. | |
| And air too hailed Spring’s joyous sway; | |
| The bluebird warbled clear and sweet; | |
| Then came the wren with carols gay, | 35 |
| The ’customed roof and porch to greet; | |
| The mockbird showed its varied skill; | |
| At evening moaned the whippoorwill. | |
| Type of the Spring from Winter’s gloom! | |
| The butterfly new being found; | 40 |
| Whilst round the pink may-apple’s bloom | |
| Gave myriad drinking bees their sound. | |
| Great fleeting clouds the pigeons made; | |
| When near her brood the hunter strayed | |
| With trailing limp the partridge stirred; | 45 |
| Whilst a quick feathered spangle shot, | |
| Rapid as thought from spot to spot, | |
| Showing the fairy humming-bird. | |
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