Classic Poem

E' EN as a woman in travail, whom the shades of sleep
Descending slowly, slowly overwhelm at last,
Lies all dishevelled, panting on her bridal bed,
While sighs and broken words chase each other across her lips
And sudden waves of colour flush her pallid face,

So lies the Earth now; for the moving shadows drift
Across the greensward chequered with the pale sunlight,
And the moist breezes sway the peach and almond-trees,
Blossoming in pink and white, until the blossoms fall:
From every pore the brown soil breathes a song to Spring

‘Hither, arising from your ocean pastures, come,
Kine of the heavens, ye herds of grey and snow-white clouds!
From swollen breasts rain down your milk on hill and plain,
Smiling beneath you while they clothe themselves in green,
And on the woodland, throbbing with new life again!’

So sing the flowers, awakened from their winter sleep,
So sing the bursting buds from every twig and bough,
And roots, which eagerly strike deeper in the soil:
So from the mould'ring bones of those long dead arise
Germs of new life, singing their resurrection song.

Hark, the stream crashes, the thunder roars among the hills,
The curious heifer peers forth from his dripping stall;
Hark to the cock who crows and proudly flaps his wings;
Deep in the orchard sounds the cuckoo's sighing note,
And baby feet dance joyously upon the lawn.

O stalwart shoulders, bow yourselves to work again!
O hearts of youth and maiden, dream sweet dreams of love!
Wings of the Imagination, fledge yourselves for flight!
Tumultuous desires, now break all barriers down!
Spring comes again, and shall come through the centuries.