Where slanting banks are always with the sun <br />The daisy is in blossom even now; <br />And where warm patches by the hedges run <br />The cottager when coming home from plough <br />Brings home a cowslip root in flower to set. <br />Thus ere the Christmas goes the spring is met <br />Setting up little tents about the fields <br />In sheltered spots.--Primroses when they get <br />Behind the wood's old roots, where ivy shields <br />Their crimpled, curdled leaves, will shine and hide. <br />Cart ruts and horses' footings scarcely yield <br />A slur for boys, just crizzled and that's all. <br />Frost shoots his needles by the small dyke side, <br />And snow in scarce a feather's seen to<br /><br />John Clare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/spring-s-messengers/
