| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. A Vernal Thought | | By Mrs. Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793–1835) |
| | | O FESTAL Spring! ’midst thy victorious glow, | |
| Far-spreading o’er the kindled woods and plains, | |
| And streams that bound to meet thee from thy chains, | |
| Well might there lurk the shadow of a woe | |
| For human hearts, and in the exulting flow | 5 |
| Of thy rich songs a melancholy tone, | |
| Were we of mould all earthly; we alone, | |
| Severed from thy great spell, and doomed to go | |
| Farther, still farther, from our sunny time, | |
| Never to feel the breathings of our prime, | 10 |
| Never to flower again!—But we, O Spring! | |
| Cheered by deep whispers not of earth, | |
| Press to the regions of thy heavenly birth, | |
| As here thy flowers and birds press on to bloom and sing. | | | | |
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