Some of the Whatever we do or do not do, Spring in England must 



Ranunculus always be lovely, and we all of us long to share our country 



Spring with our town friends. Tennyson's spring invitation to 



an old friend in his last volume called Demeter all will be glad 



to have recalled : 



" Spring flowers while you still delay to take 



Your leave of Town, 



Our elm-tree's ruddy-hearted blossom-flake 

 Is fluttering down. 



Be truer to your promise. There ! I heard 



One cuckoo call. 

 Be needle to the magnet of your word, 



Nor wait, till all 



Our vernal bloom from every vale and plain 



And garden pass, 



And all the gold from each laburnum chain 

 Drop to the grass. 



Is memory with your Marian gone to rest, 



Dead with the dead ? 

 For ere she left us, when we met, you prest 



My hand and said : 



'I come with your spring flowers.' You came not, friend ; 



My birds would sing, 

 You heard not. Take, then, this spring flower I send, 



This song of Spring, 



And you that now are lonely, and with Grief 



Sit face to face, 

 Might find a fleeting glimmer of relief 



In change of place. 

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