Classic Poem

God guard you, and greet you well,
Messengers of Spring:
Nightingale and cuckoo,
Turtle-dove and hoopoe,
Swallow swift, and all wild birds
That with a hundred varied words
Rouse and make to ring
Every greening glade and fell.

God guard you, and greet you fain,
Dainty flowerets, too:
Daisies, lilies, roses,
Poppies — and the posies
Sprung where ancient heroes fell,
Hyacinth and asphodel —
Mint and thyme and rue:
All be welcome back again!

God guard you, and greet you true,
Butterflies and bees,
In your motley dresses
Wooing the sweet grasses,
Flitting free on rainbow-wing,
Coaxing, kissing, cozening
Flowers of all degrees,
Red or yellow, white or blue.

A thousand thousand times I greet
Thy return again,
Sweet and beauteous season;
In sooth I love with reason
Better far thy sunny gleams
And thy gently prattling streams
Than Winter's wind and rain
That shut me close in my retreat.