WHAT masque of what old wind-withered New-Year <br />Honours this Lady? Flora, wanton-eyed <br />For birth, and with all flowrets prankt and pied: <br />Aurora, Zephyrus, with mutual cheer <br />Of clasp and kiss: the Graces circling near, <br />'Neath bower-linked arch of white arms glorified: <br />And with those feathered feet which hovering glide <br />O'er Spring's brief bloom, Hermes the harbinger. <br />Birth-bare, not death-bare yet, the young stems stand <br />This Lady's temple-columns: o'er her head <br />Love wings his shaft. What mystery here is read <br />Of homage or of hope? But how command <br />Dead Springs to answer? And how question here <br />These mummers of that wind-withered New-Year?<br /><br />Dante Gabriel Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-spring-by-sandro-botticelli/
