The Poets and Poetry of America/Spring

The Spring is here, the delicate-footed May, With its slight fingers full of leaves and flowers; And with it comes a thirst to be away, Wasting in wood-paths its voluptuous hours; A feeling that is like a sense of wings, Restless to soar above these perishing things.

We pass out from the city's feverish hum, To find refreshment in the silent woods; And nature, that is beautiful and dumb, Like a cool sleep upon the pulse broods; Yet, even there, a restless thought will steal, To teach the indolent heart it still must feel.

Strange, that the audible stillness of the noon, The waters tripping with their silver feet, The turning to the light of leaves in June, And the light whisper as their edges meet: Strange, that they fill not, with their tranquil tone, The spirit, walking in their midst alone.

There's no contentment in a world like this, Save in forgetting the immortal dream; We may not gaze upon the stars of bliss, That through the cloud-rifts radiantly stream; Bird-like, the prison'd soul will lift its eye And pine till it is hooded from the sky.