46 Bird Day Book 



SPRING COURAGE. 



LORD love ye, joyful heralds true 

 Of spring's new life, swift swallows' crew, 

 Fond doves, cuckoos, and soaring larks ; 

 Ye thrushes brown and songsters coy 

 That dart from bush in nesting joy 



To fill with life the greenwood parks ! 



Lord love ye, Easter daisies fine, 

 Narcissus, nodding columbine, 



Sweet jessamine and lilies tall, 

 The hawthorn pale, and flow'ring lime; 

 Ye anis, fragrant balm, and thyme, 



Right hearty welcome to ye all ! 



Lord love ye, parti-colored sea 

 Of butterflies, that on the lea 



Light flutter over heath and broom ; 

 And ye, new swarm of velvet bees, 

 Impartial sucking honeyed fees 



From coral bud and amber bloom ! 



A thousand times I hail again 

 Your lovely, joyous, tender train ! 



I love this pulsing season rare 

 When streamlets flow with rippling purl, 

 Rememb'ring winter's stormy swirl, 



When thus abroad I may not fare ! 



— Translated by Helen F. Page. 



