Saturday, February 22, 2025

Before the Birth of Spring / Charles Leonard Moore


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Before the birth of Spring there comes a time,
Some February day's faint augury,
With something of the Summer's gentle prime,
Rude yet with Winter's unrelinquished sway.
Such charm of doubtful season is there here;
Spring's green enamel donned too hastily
Lets icicles and frozen buds appear;
But the bland air is all the breath of May.
Look not again to see such halting act
In the round of the passion-entered year,
Such tame recital of tumultuous fact
From this full song whose midsummer is near.
    Now, Daemon, waft I thee my last embrace,
    And mourn the vision of thy vanished face.

~~
Charles Leonard Moore (1854-1928)
from Book of Day-Dreams, 1888

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]


Pauline E., A Bit of a Thaw (detail), Malton, UK, 2012. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

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