StoryTitle("caps", "The Voice of Spring") ?>
Voice of Spring," by Felicia Hemans (1749-1835), becomes attractive
as years go on. The line in this poem that captivated my youthful fancy was:
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"The larch has hung all his tassels forth,\"", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
The delight with which trees hang out their new little tassels every year
is one of the charms of "the pine family." John Burroughs sent us down a
tiny hemlock, that grew in our window-box at school for five years, and every
spring it was a new joy on account of the fine, tender tassels. Mrs. Hemans
had a vivid imagination backed up by an abundant information.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I come, I come! ye have called me long;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I come o'er the mountains, with light and song.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ye may trace my step o'er the waking earth", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the green leaves opening as I pass.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I have breathed on the South, and the chestnut-flowers", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By thousands have burst from the forest bowers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the ancient graves and the fallen fanes", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Are veiled with wreaths on Italian plains;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But it is not for me, in my hour of bloom,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To speak of the ruin or the tomb!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I have looked o'er the hills of the stormy North,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the larch has hung all his tassels forth;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The fisher is out on the sunny sea,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the reindeer bounds o'er the pastures free,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the pine has a fringe of softer green,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the moss looks bright, where my step has been.", "") ?>
PagePoem(260, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I have sent through the wood-paths a glowing sigh,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And called out each voice of the deep blue sky,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the night-bird's lay through the starry time,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To the swan's wild note by the Iceland lakes,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When the dark fir-branch into verdure breaks.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They are sweeping on to the silvery main,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They are flashing down from the mountain brows,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the earth resounds with the joy of waves.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Felicia Hemans.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>