Classic Poem

After this winter, sweet beyond a poet's power
To tell, though every word were tender, each a flower,
What shall the new year bring?
If winter is so sweet, can summer days be sweeter?
Can summer's voice sound forth in yet more passionate metre?
Can fairer blossoms deck the brow of spring?

Selfish were such a thought, else I would long to follow
Sweet winter, and to pass from life before the swallow
Returns to English skies.
O love, if thou art gone, my soul will hate the flowers!
I dread to think how dark will be the brightest hours
If summer takes its light not from thine eyes.