TURTLE-DOVES 



MAY 



' Flower upon flower expands : 

 May reigns in hawthorn lands. 

 Gone are the saffron daughters of the snow, 

 Sweet Summer tells her son 

 The daffodils are done : 

 Spring takes his mother by the hand to go. 



The sedge-wren tells her note, 



Dim larks in ether float, 



The uprolled clouds sustain their pageant dome. 



In velvet, sun-shine-fed, 



Spires up the bulrush head, 



Where rock the wild swans in their reedy home. 



Summer eternal, born 



From year to year, as morn 



Is born from day to day — reviving glows : 



Her breath the scented gale, 



Her voice the nightingale, 



Her form incarnate in the queenly rose.' 



Lord de Tabley, Auguries of May. 



' Oh were my love yon lilac fair, 



Wi' purple blossoms in the Spring, 

 And I a bird to shelter there 

 When wearied on my little wing. 



How would I mourn when it was torn 

 By Autumn wild and Winter rude ! 



But I would sing on wanton wing 



When youthfu' May its bloom renewed. 



Robert Burns. 



