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<h4>SPRING.</h4>
<p>Frost-locked all the winter,<br/>
Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits,<br/>
What shall make their sap ascend<br/>
That they may put forth shoots?<br/>
Tips of tender green,<br/>
Leaf, or blade, or sheath;<br/>
Telling of the hidden life<br/>
That breaks forth underneath,<br/>
Life nursed in its grave by Death.<br/>
<br/>
Blows the thaw-wind pleasantly,<br/>
Drips the soaking rain,<br/>
By fits looks down the waking sun:<br/>
Young grass springs on the plain;<br/>
Young leaves clothe early hedgerow trees;<br/>
Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits,<br/>
Swollen with sap, put forth their shoots;<br/>
Curled-headed ferns sprout in the lane;<br/>
Birds sing and pair again.<br/>
<br/>
There is no time like Spring,<br/>
When life's alive in everything,<br/>
Before new nestlings sing,<br/>
Before cleft swallows speed their journey back<br/>
Along the trackless track,--<br/>
God guides their wing,<br/>
He spreads their table that they nothing lack,--<br/>
Before the daisy grows a common flower,<br/>
Before the sun has power<br/>
To scorch the world up in his noontide hour.<br/>
<br/>
There is no time like Spring,<br/>
Like Spring that passes by;<br/>
There is no life like Spring-life born to die,--<br/>
Piercing the sod,<br/>
Clothing the uncouth clod,<br/>
Hatched in the nest,<br/>
Fledged on the windy bough,<br/>
Strong on the wing:<br/>
There is no time like Spring that passes by,<br/>
Now newly born, and now<br/>
Hastening to die.</p>
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