[Page 97]

ODE to SPRING.

Hope waits upon the flowery prime.
WALLER.
1 SWEET daughter of a rough and stormy sire,
2 Hoar Winter's blooming child; delightful Spring!
3 Whose unshorn locks with leaves
4 And swelling buds are crown'd;
5 From the green islands of eternal youth,
6 (Crown'd with fresh blooms, and ever springing shade,)
7 Turn, hither turn thy step,
8 O thou, whose powerful voice
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9 More sweet than softest touch of Doric reed,
10 Or Lydian flute, can sooth the madding winds,
11 And thro' the stormy deep
12 Breathe thy own tender calm.
13 Thee, best belov'd! the virgin train await
14 With songs and festal rites, and joy to rove
15 Thy blooming wilds among,
16 And vales and dewy lawns,
17 With untir'd feet; and cull thy earliest sweets
18 To weave fresh garlands for the glowing brow
19 Of him, the favour'd youth
20 That prompts their whisper'd sigh.
21 Unlock thy copious stores; those tender showers
22 That drop their sweetness on the infant buds,
23 And silent dews that swell
24 The milky ear's green stem.
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25 And feed the flowering osier's early shoots;
26 And call those winds which thro' the whispering boughs
27 With warm and pleasant breath
28 Salute the blowing flowers.
29 Now let me sit beneath the whitening thorn,
30 And mark thy spreading tints steal o'er the dale;
31 And watch with patient eye
32 Thy fair unfolding charms.
33 O nymph approach! while yet the temperate sun
34 With bashful forehead, thro' the cool moist air
35 Throws his young maiden beams,
36 And with chaste kisses woes
37 The earth's fair bosom; while the streaming veil
38 Of lucid clouds with kind and frequent shade
39 Protect thy modest blooms
40 From his severer blaze.
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41 Sweet is thy reign, but short; The red dog-star
42 Shall scorch thy tresses, and the mower's scythe
43 Thy greens, thy flow'rets all,
44 Remorseless shall destroy.
45 Reluctant shall I bid thee then farewel;
46 For O, not all that Autumn's lap contains,
47 Nor Summer's ruddiest fruits,
48 Can aught for thee atone
49 Fair Spring! whose simplest promise more delights
50 Than all their largest wealth, and thro' the heart
51 Each joy and new-born hope
52 With softest influence breathes.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): ODE to SPRING.
Author: Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin)
Themes: beauty; nature
Genres: ode; ballad metre
References: DMI 35123

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Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825. Poems. London: printed for Joseph Johnson, 1773, pp. 97-100. vi,138p. ; 4⁰. (ESTC T236; OTA K019955.000) (Page images digitized by New York Public Library.)

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