Classic Poem

Spring.

Those flowers your infancy did crown,
Spring doth again to you resign,
Which now are yours, no more her own;
The primrose and sweet eglantine,
The daisy, pink, and violet blue,
All which received their scents from you.
May blossoms now shall never fade,
You have May everlasting made.

Chorus.

All hearts rejoice which now behold
Again the happy Age of Gold.
For Time to us hath brought far more
True joys than feign'd were heretofore.
Three Royal blossoms to us he doth bring,
Whose looks and sweetness make eternal Spring.

May cherries plasht up to the wall,
The dewberry that in valleys grows,
Kept in your lips, shall never fall;
The lady grass and the musk rose
Which were your mantle swathing-band
You make yet flourish freshly, and
Sweet fennel, for court flatterers fit,
Lives under you, you above it.

Winter.

Cold winter brings to crown your age
(Many happy years are told)
The myrtle, savory, and sage,
The semper viva, never old;
To crown your high victorious brows
Green laurel garlands, arbute boughs,
With palms and olives, whose increase
Are emblems of your lasting peace.
Nor is old winter yet at all
Less frolic than the wanton Spring:
The robin redbreasts in the hall
Picking up crumbs at Christmas sing.
When winds blow cold, and ways be foul,
In barns and sheep-cotes sits the owl,
Whose note the husbandman delights
Whenas she hoots in frosty nights.