Christina Rossetti
There Is No Time Like Spring
Frost-locked all the winter
Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits
What shall make their sap ascend
That they may put forth shoots?
Tips of tender green
Leaf, or blade, or sheath;
Telling of the hidden life
That breaks forth underneath
Life nursed in its grave by Death
Blows the thaw-wind pleasantly
Drips the soaking rain
By fits looks down the waking sun:
Young grass springs on the plain;
Young leaves clothe early hedgerow trees;
Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits
Swollen with sap, put forth their shoots;
Curled-headed ferns sprout in thе lane;
Birds sing and pair again
There is no timе like Spring
When life’s alive in everything
Before new nestlings sing
Before cleft swallows speed their journey back
Along the trackless track, –
God guides their wing
He spreads their table that they nothing lack, –
Before the daisy grows a common flower
Before the sun has power
To scorch the world up in his noontide hour
There is no time like Spring
Like Spring that passes by;
There is no life like Spring-life born to die, –
Piercing the sod
Clothing the uncouth clod
Hatched in the nest
Fledged on the windy bough
Strong on the wing:
There is no time like Spring that passes by
Now newly born, and now
Hastening to die