APRIL 



'Wanton with long delay the gay spring leaping cometh ; 

 The blackthorn starreth now his bough on the eve of May : 

 All day in the sweet box-tree the bee for pleasure hummeth : 

 The cuckoo sends afloat his note on the air all day. 



Now dewy nights again and rain in gentle shower 

 At root of tree and flower have quenched the winter's drouth. 

 On high the hot sun smiles, and banks of cloud uptower 

 In bulging heads that crowd for miles the dazzling south.' 



Robert Bridges, April 1883. 



'Hark! 

 "Tis the early April lark, 

 Or the rooks with busy caw, 

 Foraging for sticks and straw. 

 Thou shalt, at one glance, behold 

 The daisy and the marigold ; 

 White plumed lilies and the first 

 Hedgegrown primrose that hath burst 



Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep 

 Meagre from its celled sleep ; 

 And the snake all winter-thin 

 Cast on sunny bank its skin ; 

 Freckled nest-eggs thou shalt see 

 Hatching in the hawthorn tree, 

 When the hen-bird's wing doth rest 

 Quiet on her silvery nest.' 



Keats. 



