AN INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY 131 



and mosses and whose head shows the fight with win- 

 ter storms and heavy sleets. Put your head against 

 his side, there is no sound; drop your head to the 

 ground, and yet no sound; but you know that he, too, 

 has heard the summons to awake; that spring is com- 

 ing. Somehow you feel as you see the tender green 

 veiling the lightest twigs that the trees are vitally alive. 

 As the birds have their songs to tell of their love, 

 so the trees and the plants put forth their joy at the 

 marriage time by their odors which float everywhere 

 and make the spring air a thing to be remembered. 

 Have you ever been through the woods when the 

 wild grape vines were a mass of bloom? Was not 

 their odor as suggestive in a subtle way as the song 

 of the birds? So think of the trees, as people who 

 live in a little different world, but still part of the 

 throbbing life which is manifest everywhere. 



AN INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY 



BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 



ALREADY, close by our summer dwelling, 

 The Easter sparrow repeats her song; 



A merry warbler, she chides the blossoms 

 The idle blossoms that sleep so long. 



The bluebird chants, from the elm's long branches, 

 A hymn to welcome the budding year. 



The south wind wanders from field to forest, 

 And softly whispers, "The spring is here." 



