With Breath of Spring

The air is full of balm, I know;The winter vanished long ago.In sheltered plots along the streetCrocus and tiny snowdrop meet,And children skip about and play—Rejoicing in the glad noonday—Or loiter 'neath some budding boughWhere bird-notes will be warbled now—Outside the prison wall.

The brook, by winter long enchained,Flows through the meadow unrestrained;The violet will blossom soon,The moth will break from the cocoon;And where the happy children sing,The fledgling bird will try his wing,—But, O my heart! the sunshine there!—The grateful shade!—the boon, free air—Outside the prison wall!