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