Page:Elegiac Sonnets and Other Essays The Second Edition.pdf/23

[  9    ] SONNET VIII. TO SPRING.

GAIN the wood and long-withdrawing vale
 * In many a tint of tender green are drest,

Where the young leaves unfolding scarce conceal
 * Beneath their early shade the half-form'd nest

Of finch or wood-lark; and the primrose pale,
 * And lavish cowslip, wildly scatter'd round,

Give their sweet spirits to the sighing gale.
 * Ah, season of delight! could aught be found
 * To soothe awhile the torturing bosom pain
 * Of sorrow's rankling shaft, to cure the wound,
 * And bring life's first delusions once again,

'Twere surely met in thee:thy prospects fair, Thy notes of harmony, thy balmy air, Have 'power to cure all sadness but despair*.' *Milton. Rh