Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1023

 WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

I837-I92O

8 1 7 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 [death.

Round the shuddering house, threating of winter and

But in my heart I feel the life of the wood and the meadow 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 [goes

(How shall I name it aright ? ) comes for a moment and Rapture of life ineffable, perfect as if in the brier,

Leafless there by my door, trembled a sense of the rose.

��THOMAS HARDY 818 The Darkling Thrush

LEANT upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-gray, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day.

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