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<h2 id="id00134" style="margin-top: 4em"> FLOOD-TIDE OF FLOWERS</h2>
<h5 id="id00135"> IN HOLLAND</h5>
<p id="id00136" style="margin-top: 2em"> The laggard winter ebbed so slow<br/>
With freezing rain and melting snow,<br/>
It seemed as if the earth would stay<br/>
Forever where the tide was low,<br/>
In sodden green and watery gray.<br/></p>
<p id="id00137"> But now from depths beyond our sight,<br/>
The tide is turning in the night,<br/>
And floods of color long concealed<br/>
Come silent rising toward the light,<br/>
Through garden bare and empty field.<br/></p>
<p id="id00138"> And first, along the sheltered nooks,<br/>
The crocus runs in little brooks<br/>
Of joyance, till by light made bold<br/>
They show the gladness of their looks<br/>
In shining pools of white and gold.<br/></p>
<p id="id00139"> The tiny scilla, sapphire blue,<br/>
Is gently sweeping in, to strew<br/>
The earth with heaven; and sudden rills<br/>
Of sunlit yellow, sweeping through,<br/>
Spread into lakes of daffodils.<br/></p>
<p id="id00140"> The hyacinths, with fragrant heads,<br/>
Have overflowed their sandy beds,<br/>
And fill the earth with faint perfume,<br/>
The breath that Spring around her sheds.<br/>
And now the tulips break in bloom!<br/></p>
<p id="id00141"> A sea, a rainbow-tinted sea,<br/>
A splendor and a mystery,<br/>
Floods o'er the fields of faded gray:<br/>
The roads are full of folks in glee,<br/>
For lo,—to-day is Easter Day!<br/></p>
<p id="id00142" style="margin-top: 2em"> April, 1916.</p>
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