Hepatica, anemone,

And bloodroot snowy white,

With their pretty wildwood sisters,

Are opening to the light.

Each blossom bears a message

That a little child may read,

Of the wondrous miracle of life

Hid in the buried seed.

In the woods and fields and gardens

We may find the blessed words

Writ in beauty, and may hear them,

Set in music by the birds.

It is Nature’s Easter carol,

And we, too, with gladness sing,

For we see the Life immortal

In the promise of the spring.

—Anna M. Pratt,

From “Among Flowers and Trees with the Poets.”