Explore "Spring" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
By Charles D'Orleans
Gentle Spring! in sunshine clad, / Well dost thou thy power display! / For Winter maketh the light heart sad, / And thou, thou makest the sad heart gay. / He sees thee, and calls to his gloomy train, / The sleet, and the snow, and the wind, and the rain; / And they shrink away, and they flee in fear, / When thy merry step draws near. / Winter giveth the fields and the trees, so old, / Their beards of icicles and snow; / And the rain, it raineth so fast and cold, / We must cower over the embers low; / And, snugly housed from the wind and weather, / Mope like birds that are changing feather. / But the storm retires, and the sky grows clear, / When thy merry step draws near. / Winter maketh the sun in the gloomy sky / Wrap him round with a mantle of cloud; / But, Heaven be praised, thy step is nigh; / Thou tearest away the mournful shroud, / And the earth looks bright, and Winter surly, / Who has toiled for naught both late and early, / Is banished afar by the new-born year, / When thy merry step draws near.