The snow is gone from cottage tops The thatch moss glows in brighter green And eves in quick succession drops Where grinning ides once hath been Pit patting Wi a pleasant noise In tubs set by the cottage door And ducks and geese wi happy joys Douse in the yard pond brimming oer The sun peeps thro the window pane Which childern mark wi laughing eye And in the wet street steal again To tell each other spring is nigh And as young hope the past recalls In playing groups will often draw Building beside the sunny walls Their spring-play-huts of sticks or straw And oft in pleasures dreams they hie Round homsteads by the village side Scratting the hedgrow mosses bye Where painted pooty shells abide Mistaking oft the ivy spray For leaves that come wi budding spring And wondering in their search for play Why birds delay to build and sing The milkmaid singing leaves her bed As glad as happy thoughts can be While magpies chatter oer her head As jocund in the change as she Her cows around the closes stray Nor lingering wait the foddering boy Tossing the molehills in their play And staring round in frolic joy Ploughmen go whistling to their toils And yoke again the rested plough And mingling oer the mellow soils Boys` shouts and whips are noising now The shepherd now is often seen By warm banks oer his work to bend Or oer a gate or stile to lean Chattering to a passing friend Odd hive bees fancying winter oer And dreaming in their combs of spring Creeps on the slab beside their door And strokes its legs upon its wing While wild ones half asleep are humming Round snowdrop bells a feeble note And pigions coo of summer coming Picking their feathers on the cote The barking dogs by lane and wood Drive sheep afield from foddering ground And eccho in her summer mood Briskly mocks the cheery sound The flocks as from a prison broke Shake their wet fleeces in the sun While following fast a misty smoke Reeks from the moist grass as they run Nor more behind his masters heels The dog creeps oer his winter pace But cocks his tail and oer the fields Runs many a wild and random chase Following in spite of chiding calls The startld cat wi harmless glee Scaring her up the weed green walls Or mossy mottld apple tree As crows from morning perches flye He barks and follows them in vain Een larks will catch his nimble eye And off he starts and barks again Wi breathless haste and blinded guess Oft following where the hare hath gone Forgetting in his joys excess His frolic puppy days are done The gossips saunter in the sun As at the spring from door to door Of matters in the village done And secret newsings mutterd oer Young girls when they each other meet Will stand their tales of love to tell While going on errands down the street Or fetching water from the well A calm of pleasure listens round And almost whispers winter bye While fancy dreams of summer sounds And quiet rapture fills the eye The sun beams on the hedges lye The south wind murmurs summer soft And maids hang out white cloaths to dry Around the eldern skirted croft Each barns green thatch reeks in the sun Its mate the happy sparrow calls And as nest building spring begun Peeps in the holes about the walls The wren a sunny side the stack Wi short tail ever on the strunt Cockd gadding up above his back Again for dancing gnats will hunt The gladdend swine bolt from the sty And round the yard in freedom run Or stretching in their slumbers lye Beside the cottage in the sun The young horse whinneys to its mate And sickens from the threshers door Rubbing the straw yards banded gate Longing for freedom on the moor Hens leave their roosts wi cackling calls To see the barn door free from snow And cocks flye up the mossy walls To clap their spangld wings and crow About the steeples sunny top The jackdaw flocks resemble spring And in the stone archd windows pop Wi summer noise and wanton wing The small birds think their wants are oer To see the snow hills fret again And from the barns chaff litterd door Betake them to the greening plain The woodmans robin startles coy Nor longer at his elbow comes To peck wi hungers eager joy Mong mossy stulps the litterd crumbs Neath hedge and walls that screen the wind The gnats for play will Hock together And een poor flyes odd hopes will find To venture in the mocking weather From out their hiding holes again Wi feeble pace they often creep Along the sun warmd window pane Like dreaming things that walk in sleep The mavis thrush wi wild delight Upon the orchards dripping tree Mutters to see the day so bright Spring scraps of young hopes poesy And oft dame stops her burring wheel To hear the robins note once more That tutles while he pecks his meal From sweet briar hips beside the door The hedghog from its hollow root Sees the wood moss clear of snow And hunts each hedge for fallen fruit Crab hip and winter bitten sloe And oft when checkd by sudden fears As shepherd dog his haunt espies He rolls up in a ball of spears And all his barking rage defies Thus nature of the spring will dream While south winds thaw but soon again Frost breaths upon the stiffening stream And numbs it into ice-the plain Soon wears its merry garb of white And icicles that fret at noon Will eke their icy tails at night Beneath the chilly stars and moon Nature soon sickens of her joys And all is sad and dumb again Save merry shouts of sliding boys About the frozen furrowd plain The foddering boy forgets his song And silent goes wi folded arms And croodling shepherds bend along Crouching to the whizzing stormsSourceThe script ran 0.001 seconds.
The script ran 0.001 seconds.
