The Backward Spring

And while she milked her breathing cows
I sat beside the streams,
In musing o'er our evening joys,
Like one in pleasant dreams:
The bats and owls, to meet the night,
From hollow trees had gone,
And e'en the flowers had shut for sleep,
Yet still she lingered on.

We mused in raptures side by side,
Our wishing seemed as one;
We talked of Time's retreating tide,
And sighed to find it gone.
And we had sighed more deeply still
O'er all our pleasures past,
If we had known what now we know,
That we had met the last.

THE day waxes warmer,
The winter's far gone,
Then come out, my charmer,
And bring summer on.
Thy beauty is gleaming
So sweetly to see;
'Tis summer and sunshine
To be only with thee.

I thought in some quarrel
The too tardy Spring
Had ta'en Winter's apparel —
But no such a thing;
For the snow 'neath the hedges
Hath packed up and gone,
And May's little pledges
For Summer come on.

The flower's on the hawthorn,
Oak-balls on the tree,
And the blackbird is building
Love's palace in glee;
Then come out, my charmer,
And lead Summer on,
Where'er thou art smiling,
Care and Winter are gone.

Even snows, 'neath thy feet,
I could fancy to be
A carpet of daisies.
The rime on the tree
Would bloom in thy smiling,
And quickly appear
Like blossoms, beguiling
The prime of the year.

The ice on the waters,
Oh! I could agree
That Winter had changed
To a palace for thee —