Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | III. The Seasons | | “Sweetly breathing, vernal air” | | Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?) |
| | | SWEETLY breathing, vernal air, | |
| That with kind warmth doth repair | |
| Winter’s ruins; from whose breast | |
| All the gums and spice of the East | |
| Borrow their perfumes; whose eye | 5 |
| Gilds the morn, and clears the sky. | |
| Whose dishevelled tresses shed | |
| Pearls upon the violet bed; | |
| On whose brow, with calm smiles drest | |
| The halcyon sits and builds her nest; | 10 |
| Beauty, youth, and endless spring | |
| Dwell upon thy rosy wing! | |
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| Thou, if stormy Boreas throws | |
| Down whole forests when he blows, | |
| With a pregnant, flowery birth, | 15 |
| Canst refresh the teeming earth. | |
| If he nip the early bud, | |
| If he blast what ’s fair or good, | |
| If he scatter our choice flowers, | |
| If he shake our halls or bowers, | 20 |
| If his rude breath threaten us, | |
| Thou canst stroke great Æolus, | |
| And from him the grace obtain, | |
| To bind him in an iron chain. | | | | |
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