Vita Nuova

WHAT miracle is here—What vision of forgotten things and dear?The grass—how green it lies in coverts deep!The pussy-willows—sentinels of the wood—How slim, how fair, each 'neath its downy snood,They stand, new-waked from sleep!

And the enchantment coldThat seemed as death? Could it no longer holdAgainst the glow that warmed the breast of Earth?Hearken! what myriad little lives once moreCome knocking, knocking at the Mother's door,Importunate for birth!

The trees, that look so bare,Are conscious that the tender leaves are there—Folded, yet faintly stirring in the bud;And upward from each buried rootlet runs,The golden ichor, gift of vernal suns,On-swelling to the flood.

And, oh! thrice loved of yore—Whence comes that note? It was not here before!The white-throat! By what blest magician's art—Flung out of silence, comes that clear appeal,To make the jaded and insensate feelNew yearnings of the heart?

A something in the songShall hardly to a later strain belong—A tremulous and naïve ecstasyThat moves the soul; which, eager then to live,Petitions life: "Ah, stay awhile, and giveA little heed to me!

"I, also, feel the Spring!I, also, long to spread my wings and sing,Unvexed by cares that canker and consume:To hope, to dream,—ere winter come, to captureThe fleeting thrill, the fragrance and the raptureOf beauty in its bloom!"