Page:Poems, Volume 2, Coates, 1916.djvu/35



HE wild bird's first exultant strain

Says,—"Winter is over—over!"

And spring returns to the world again,

With breath as of lilac and clover.

With a certain soft, appealing grace

(Surely some sorrow hath kissed her!)

She gives to our vision her girlish face,

And we know how we've missed her—missed her!

For on a day she went away,

Long ere the leaves were falling,

And came no more for the whitethroat's lay,

Or the pewee's plaintive calling.

In tender tints on her broidered shoon

Blossomed the leaves of the myrtle,

And silky buds of the darling June

Were gathered up in her kirtle;