Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743–1825)

Ode to Spring

SWEET daughter of a rough and stormy sire,

Hoar Winter’s blooming child; delightful Spring!

Whose unshorn locks with leaves

And swelling buds are crowned;

From the green islands of eternal youth,

Crowned with fresh blooms and ever springing shade;

Turn, hither turn thy step,

O thou, whose powerful voice

More sweet than softest touch of Doric reed,

Or Lydian flute, can soothe the madding winds,

And through the stormy deep

Breathe thine own tender calm.

Thee, best beloved! the virgin train await

With songs and festal rites, and joy to rove

Thy blooming wilds among,

And vales and dewy lawns,

With untired feet; and cull thy earliest sweet,

To weave fresh garlands for the glowing brow

Of him, the favoured youth

That prompts their whispered sigh.

Unlock thy copious stores,—those tender showers

That drop their sweetness on the infant buds;

And silent dews that swell

The milky ear’s green stem,

And feed the flowering osier’s early shoots;

And call those winds which through the whispering boughs

With warm and pleasant breath

Salute the blowing flowers.

Now let me sit beneath the whitening thorn

And mark thy spreading tints steal o’er the dale,

And watch with patient eye

Thy fair unfolding charms.

O nymph, approach! while yet the temperate sun

With bashful forehead through the cool moist air

Throws his young maiden beams,

And with chaste kisses wooes

The earth’s fair bosom; while the streaming veil

Of lucid clouds with wind and frequent shade

Protects thy modest blooms

From his severer blaze.

Sweet is thy reign, but short:—the red dog-star

Shall scorch thy tresses, and the mower’s scythe

Thy greens, thy flowerets all

Remorseless shall destroy.

Reluctant shall I bid thee then farewell:

For O not all that Autumn’s lap contains,

Nor Summer’s ruddiest fruits,

Can aught for thee atone,

Fair Spring! whose simplest promise more delights

Than all their largest wealth, and through the heart

Each joy and new-born hope

With softest influence breathes.