Description of Spring / Henry Howard

Description of Spring, 
wherein eche thing renews, save onelie the lover

The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale:
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs:  
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes flete with new repairèd scale.
The adder all her slough away she slings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;
The busy bee her honey now she mings;
Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Eche care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.

~~
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)
from Tottel's Miscellany, 1870

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey biography