A Free Imitation of the Earl of Surrey’s Description of Spring, wherein each thing renews, save only the lover.
Again return’d, reviving spring
With verdure decks the hill and dale,
The nightingales new feather’d sing
The doves renew their am’rous tale.
The swallows swift the flies pursue
From teeming earth fair flowers arise
Display their forms of beauteous hue
And breathe their perfumes to the skies.
The busy bees their stories collect
From herbs whose fragrance scents the gale;
All smile but me my fair’s neglect
Oppressed with woe I rove the vale.
There I the smiling landscape view,
The trees new rob’d the gladsome skies;
Thus, spring, which nature’s woes subdues,
My sorrow strengthens, swells my sighs.