Soft-littered is the new-year's lambing fold, <br />And in the hollowed haystack at its side <br />The shepherd lies o' night now, wakeful-eyed <br />At the ewes' travailing call through the dark cold. <br />The young rooks cheep 'mid the thick caw o' the old: <br />And near unpeopled stream-sides, on the ground, <br />By her Spring cry the moorhen's nest is found, <br />Where the drained flood-lands flaunt their marigold. <br /> <br />Chill are the gusts to which the pastures cower, <br />And chill the current where the young reeds stand <br />As green and close as the young wheat on land <br />Yet here the cuckoo and cuckoo-flower <br />Plight to the heart Spring's perfect imminent hour <br />Whose breath shall soothe you like your dear one's hand.<br /><br />Dante Gabriel Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/spring-9/
