Ode to Spring

Welcome to our longing sight,
Lovely Spring! with true delight,
We behold thy blissful charms,
Which the chearing sunshine warms,
Softening breezes, lengthening days,
Vivid Light's more glorious rays;
Rising verdure, early flowers,
Opening in the fragrant bowers:
Spring! those pleasing gifts are thine:
Now the fields with daisies shine -
Now the mossy banks display
Violets smiling in the day,
Primroses, and cowslips, there,
Give fresh odours to the air:
See, for thee the wild-rose blooms,
Honeysuckles breathe perfumes;
And the cool refreshing air
Wantons over thy bosom fair;
At thy magic smile, the maid,
Sighing in the lonely shade,
Feels Love's soft emotions swell,
And NATURE in her heart rebel:
O'er the verdure of the vale,
Ceaseless flows the spritely gale;
And the groves, elastic, play,
Glistening in the lucid ray;
On the topmost branch, elate,
The glad red breast chears his mate,
Whilst the sky-lark, singing, soars,
And aerial heights explores,
'Till instinctive love, again,
Draws him down with mystic chain.
O'er the plains, the hills and vales,
Thy Elysian bloom prevails;
And the lambs, with playful bound,
Frolic over the flowery ground.
Nature's fairest child, benign,
Sent by Providence divine,
Welcome, welcome, to our eyes!
With thy train of loves and joys.