Like pendant flakes of vegetating snow, The early herald of the infant year, Ere yet the adventurous Crocus dares to blow Beneath the orchard boughs, thy buds appear. While still the cold north-east ungenial lowers, And scarce the hazel in the leafless copse Or sallows shew their downy powder'd flowers, The grass is spangled with thy silver drops. Yet, when those pallid blossoms shall give place To countless tribes of richer hue and scent, Summer's gay blooms, and Autumn's yellow race, I shall thy pale inodorous bells lament. So journeying onward in life's varying track, Even while warm youth its bright illusion lends, Fond Memory often with regret looks back To childhood's pleasures, and to infant friends. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE YOUNG GLASS-STAINER by THOMAS HARDY LONDON'S SUMMER MORNING by MARY DARBY ROBINSON A MATCH by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE SIMPKIN by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES SOLILOQUY by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. CHILD OF THE LONELY HEART by EDWARD CARPENTER |