March / Seranus

March

With outstretched whirring wings of vandyked jet,
Two crows one day o'er home and pavement pass'd.
Swift silhouettes limned against the blue, they glass'd
Smooth beak and ebon feather in the wet
Of gaping pool and gutter, while, beset
By nestward longing, high their hoarse cry cast
In the face of fickle sun and treacherous blast,
Till all the City smelt the violet.

Then through that City quick the news did run.
Great wheels were slackened; belts were stopped in mill,
And fires in forges. Long ere set of sun
Dazed men, pale women sought the open hill — 
They thronged the streets. They caught the clarion cry — 
"Spring has come back — trust Spring to never die."

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Seranus (Susan Frances Harrison)
from Pine, Rose, and Fleur de Lis, 1891

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]
Seranus (by George Dance)