Lifts from the sea of daffodils,— Of all but those on window-sills
We can but dream.
IV—April
At dawn a gay gallant comes to the eaves
And trills a song unto his lady fair,
And then, above the reach of boyish thieves,
A building nest sways in the balmy air;
One day a flower upon a window sill
Puts forth a bud, and as its beauty grows
The sun—gay prodigal!—with life-light glows,
The while he reads the doom of storms and snows;
And then—and then—there comes the springtime's thrill!
V—The Coming of Winter
A chill, damp west wind and a heavy sky,
With clouds that merge in one gray, darkling sea,
The last red leaves of autumn flutter by,
Wrest from the dead twigs of the street-side tree;
And then there comes an eddying cloud of white,
First dim, then blotting everything below;
Up to the eaves the sparrows haste in flight—
And thus upon the town descends the snow.
VI—The Snow
A song of birds adown a mine's dark galleries,
A scent of roses 'mid a waste of moor and fen,
A gush of sparkling waters from the desert sands,—
So comes the snow upon the town, an alien.
VII—Nocturne
How like a warrior on the battlefield
The city sleeps, with brain awake, and eyes
That know no closing. Ere the first star dies
It rises from its slumber, and with shield
In hand, full ready for the fray,
Goes forth to meet the day.
