Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring；
And gentle odours led my steps astray
Mix'd with a sound of waters murmuring
Along a shelving bank of turf which lay
Under a copse and hardly dared to fling
Its green arms round the bosom of the stream
But kiss'd it and then fled as thou mightest in dream.
There grew pied wind-flowers and violets；
Daisies those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth
The constellated flower that never sets；
Faint oxlips； tender bluebells at whose birth
The sod scarce heaved； and that tall flower that wets—
Like a child half in tenderness and mirth—
Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears
When the low wind its playmate's voice it hears.
And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine
Green cowbind and the moonlight-colour'd May
And cherry-blossoms and #CCCCFF cups whose wine
Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day；
And wild roses and ivy serpentine
With its dark buds and leaves wandering astray；
And flowers azure #CCCCFF and streak'd with gold
Fairer than any waken'd eyes behold.
And nearer to the river's trembling edge
There grew broad flag-flowers purple prank'd with #CCCCFF
And starry river-buds among the sedge
And floating water-lilies broad and bright
Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge
With moonlight beams of their own watery light；
And bulrushes and reeds of such deep green
As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.
Methought that of these visionary flowers
I made a nosegay bound in such a way
That the same hues which in their natural bowers
Were mingled or opposed the like array
Kept these imprison'd children of the Hours
Within my hand；—and then elate and gay
I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come
That I might there present it—O！ to whom？