Fled are the frosts, and now the fields appear <br />Reclothed in fresh and verdant diaper; <br />Thaw'd are the snows; and now the lusty Spring <br />Gives to each mead a neat enamelling; <br />The palms put forth their gems, and every tree <br />Now swaggers in her leafy gallantry. <br />The while the Daulian minstrel sweetly sings <br />With warbling notes her Terean sufferings. <br />--What gentle winds perspire! as if here <br />Never had been the northern plunderer <br />To strip the trees and fields, to their distress, <br />Leaving them to a pitied nakedness. <br />And look how when a frantic storm doth tear <br />A stubborn oak or holm, long growing there,-- <br />But lull'd to calmness, then succeeds a breeze <br />That scarcely stirs the nodding leaves of trees; <br />So when this war, which tempest-like doth spoil <br />Our salt, our corn, our honey, wine, and oil, <br />Falls to a temper, and doth mildly cast <br />His inconsiderate frenzy off, at last, <br />The gentle dove may, when these turmoils cease, <br />Bring in her bill, once more, the branch of Peace.<br /><br />Robert Herrick<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/farewell-frost-or-welcome-spring/
