Explore "Why Ye Blossome Cometh before Ye Leafe" by Oliver Herford on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Once hoary Winter chanced -- alas!
Alas! hys waye mistaking, / A leafless apple tree to pass / Where Spring lay dreaming. "Fie ye lass!
Ye lass had best be waking," / Quoth he, and shook hys robe, and lo!
Lo! forth didde flye a cloud of snowe.
Now in ye bough an elfe there dwelte, / An elfe of wondrous powere, / That when ye chillye snowe didde pelte, / With magic charm each flake didde melte, / Didde melte into a flowere; / And Spring didde wake and marvelle how, / How blossomed so ye leafless bough.