Poems of Nature, Poems Subjective and Reminiscent and Religious Poems, Complete

THE FIRST FLOWERS

     For ages on our river borders,
     These tassels in their tawny bloom,
     And willowy studs of downy silver,
     Have prophesied of Spring to come.

     For ages have the unbound waters
     Smiled on them from their pebbly hem,
     And the clear carol of the robin
     And song of bluebird welcomed them.

     But never yet from smiling river,
     Or song of early bird, have they
     Been greeted with a gladder welcome
     Than whispers from my heart to-day.

     They break the spell of cold and darkness,
     The weary watch of sleepless pain;
     And from my heart, as from the river,
     The ice of winter melts again.

     Thanks, Mary! for this wild-wood token
     Of Freya's footsteps drawing near;
     Almost, as in the rune of Asgard,
     The growing of the grass I hear.

     It is as if the pine-trees called me
     From ceiled room and silent books,
     To see the dance of woodland shadows,
     And hear the song of April brooks!

     As in the old Teutonic ballad
     Of Odenwald live bird and tree,
     Together live in bloom and music,
     I blend in song thy flowers and thee.

     Earth's rocky tablets bear forever
     The dint of rain and small bird's track
     Who knows but that my idle verses
     May leave some trace by Merrimac!

     The bird that trod the mellow layers
     Of the young earth is sought in vain;
     The cloud is gone that wove the sandstone,
     From God's design, with threads of rain!

     So, when this fluid age we live in
     Shall stiffen round my careless rhyme,
     Who made the vagrant tracks may puzzle
     The savants of the coming time;

     And, following out their dim suggestions,
     Some idly-curious hand may draw
     My doubtful portraiture, as Cuvier
     Drew fish and bird from fin and claw.

     And maidens in the far-off twilights,
     Singing my words to breeze and stream,
     Shall wonder if the old-time Mary
     Were real, or the rhymer's dream!

     1st 3d mo., 1857.