The year is good that paces quietly In steady courses to its myriad goals; For earth's hot heart outrushes to the sun, Eager to give herself in leaf and flower, And over-ardent for her lover's arms. A hint of welcome, and her veins athrill Blossom with ready loveliness too soon, Taught sadly, as her human sisters are, By answering blight of cold indifference, By March's rigors and an April frost, That love, the queen, must not forget herself, Nor ever leave her sceptre and her throne. So watch the wise repressions of the trees, The chastening ice that holds them prudently, The granite ground that seals uncounted seeds From their undoing, and rejoice to note The fastnesses and caution of the cold. Rejoice! for thus, my soul, in icy ways, In frigid stern denials manifold, Thy spring is cast, thy blossoming of love, Thy bourgeoning of knowledge and of life. Steady, me soul! and trust the circling Sun. Steady, my soul! and know that love is sure, And truth, and life. Against the icy walls Press boldly and confidingly. Some day, In rush and swirl of glad enfranchisement, All barriers will break and melt and flow, And love and truth and beauty will be thine, The heart of life laid open to the Sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHEN I BUY PICTURES by MARIANNE MOORE ANTONIO by LAURA ELIZABETH HOWE RICHARDS ON THE DEATH OF A CAT by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI OUR WEAKNESS by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS THE PARTING OF LAUNCELOT AND GUENEVERE; A FRAGMENT by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON OLNEY HYMNS: 8. O LORD, I WILL PRAISE THEE by WILLIAM COWPER EMMELINE TALBOT; A BALLAD OF THE PALE by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS |