After Reading in Ingram's Monograph on Oliver Madox Brown the Chapter Entitled "Friendship", 2

And did it really live, that far-off day.
That day in March, so memorably sweet.
When to the country went our hastening feet.
And small spring flowers made blithe the country way,
And birds sang to us of the coming May;
And in the soft, blue air, with song replete,
We felt glad presage of the longed-for heat.
When summer should be come in brave array?

Now only one of us can ever go
To give Spring welcome where skies show more clear.
When birds attest the glad youth of the year;
And grief is not quite unassuaged, while so.
On winds that, whispering, wander to and fro,
Spring's inner message the hushed heart can hear.