130 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



Smother him in perfumes 

 Till their sweets made him faint, 



Then bedizen his plumes 



With such gay things and quaint 



As Media, lamb's tongue, 



The crocus, and star-eye, 

 Till his sleet-scales were hung 



With each bright early dye. 



IX. 



When with vines they had bound him, 

 Then in mocking dance round him, 

 Till spring their maiden queen come 

 We know by the swelling hum. 



That she has just lifted one glorious wing, 



As eagles pause on the stoop for a flight, 

 And the flashes its burnished hues outfling 



Gild first like morning the hill-tops with light ; 

 Soon now, the blaze of that splendor gleaming 



From each golden feather fully outspread, 

 Down through valleys, and cold shadows beaming, 



Will the warm glow, of her presence be shed ! 

 Away on her beautiful flight at last, 

 Sailing the arrowy breeze she has past. 



x. 



She is chasing Old Winter a merry chase, 

 And the roused earth shouts to the clattering race. 

 She is wanting to kiss Old Frosty, I ween, 

 But bachelors never a-kissing are seen ! 



They were always so silly, 

 And their blue lips so chilly, 



