I will be glad because it is the spring. AMY LEVY. SHALL I be glad because the year is young? The shy, swift-coming green is on the trees; The jonquil's passion to the wind is flung; I catch the Mayflower's breath upon the breeze. The birds, aware that mating-time has come, Swell their plumed, tuneful throats with love and glee; The streams, beneath the winter's thraldom dumb, Set free at last, run singing to the sea. Shall I be glad because the year is young? Nay; you yourself were young that other year: Though sad and low the tender songs you sung, My fond heart heard them, and stood still to hear. Can I forget the day you said good-by, And robbed the world and me for alien spheres? Do I not know, when wild winds sob and die, Your voice is on them, sadder than my tears? You come to tell me heaven itself is cold, -- The world was warm from which you fled away, -- And moon and stars and sun are very old -- And you? -- oh, you were young in last year's May: Now you, who were the very heart of spring, Are old, and share the secrets of the skies; But I lack something that no year will bring, Since May no longer greets me with your eyes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HER EYES TWIN POOLS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON A DIVINE IMAGE, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE OLD IRONSIDES by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES IN PROGRESS by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE GREEN ROADS by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS |