Classic Poem

Green April! fairest daughter of the year,
Pale, azure-eyed, fleet, radiantly proud! —
Low rainbow and thick blossom, purple cloud,
And over all thy splendor — welcome here!
What ecstasy is this! What sudden fear
Of living; what mad joy! Swift from thy showers
Bluebirds and swallows and drifted pear flowers,
Green grass and violets — all will appear!

With orange and with myrtle Freya crowns
Her bridal brow for Balder's journeying,
Persephone, set free, flies from the gloom
Of her captivity, Christ leaves the tomb:
The warm blood leaps and through the hills resounds
Spring's sudden, silent, silver trumpeting!